Come Back
       

I can't see all of any horse at once.
They weave through twilight, in and out of sight,
as the sky drains of color, enters dusk.

The barn's a bloodstain on an ivory dress,
lost in the skirt, a spiraling red kite.
I can't see all of any horse at once.

Between us there is only field and dust,
a fence and a shadow-fence. Beside me lightning
splashes the hillside, loosens it so dusk

can wring each soggy evergreen, unlace
pink threads of berries from the shrubs. I wait.
I can't see all of any horse at once.

The moon has flown and in its place a husk
clings to the sky. The horses figure eight
in single file. Through rain-sown drapes of dusk

I try to count them, climb up on the fence.
Their foreheads shine with pearly stars, ghost-lit.
I can't see all of any horse at once—
they multiply, and shiver in the dusk.

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Copyright © 2014 Chloe Honum All rights reserved
from The Tulip-Flame
Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission