A red roan Appaloosa moseys to the rail
and pokes her nose across at me to snuff
some sweet hay in my fist, switching her tail
as her eyes cross to focus on the stuff
the better in the dim air. Stars are out,
a few at least, and, too, the orange moon
has cleared the trees. It shines here on her snout
as she draws up her lip. The ground is strewn
with clumps of hay placed for the eating. She
prefers instead to nuzzle at my hand
as if these tufts pertained to mystery,
as she to me pertains, stunned where I stand
unclenching all, here, now, only to live
for giving her what isn’t mine to give.
From A Tree and Gone, ©2021 Terence Culleton, Future Cycle Press. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission of the author. Available for purchase at: https://amzn.to/3qDrRqN.
Poet’s Corner is curated by Bucks County Poet Laureate Tom Mallouk and supported by a grant to the Bucks County Herald Foundation made possible by Marv and Dee Ann Woodall.
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