The horse: difficult to provide for
because of the divorce, but necessary
nonetheless, for how does one survive
except by disappearing completely in
to love, that distinct smell and muzzle,
that lipping the pocket for sugar, licking
the hand for salt? The one year I lived
in the urban, the sky was orange, no one
having yet revealed how to point the
light from the streetlamp just downwards, the night
still assaulted from below and so
reflecting back on me an ochre din,
the weight of summer pushing down on
me in parking lots, the artificial
pond in my square yard drawing every
finch and crow, anxious raccoon and feral cat,
as if to an ancient spring, the air
dry with sparks, the city like hay.
Sandra Kolankiewicz's poems have appeared widely, most recently in Otis Nebulae, Trampset, Concho River Review, London Magazine, New World Writing and Appalachian Heritage. Turning Inside Out was published by Black Lawrence. Finishing Line has released The Way You Will Go and Lost in Transition.
