roman sandals (1986)

my horse giggles subway tokens
that crack to reveal
secrets in fortune cookies,
his eyes
are lobster red and boil molten lava,
his mane is made
of ash and sunlight
and falls as a courteous stepladder
bolted to the ground
as tenaciously
as a cat 
in a whitewater rapids canoe

my horses flanks ripple poetry
that flung to the 
storm ice over the clouds of threat,
he is ten
years pregnant
and hides his paternity clothes
behind the 
umbrella in the sun

he runs like a bolt of cloth in a factory
or a fishline anchored deep
in the jaw, ears perk
back with a promise
whispered over the wind
as the miles fade beneath the thunder

his sweat feeds the nile
and raises
alligator ghosts from the mud,
his hooves iron their
breath to shoelaces
and they crisscross
my mind like roman sandals




1986 Lawrence, Ks