Jane Lovell – The Vogelherd Horse

the Vogelherd Horse

I am curved air
or water over stone.

Existing in two worlds
I find footholds in moments
cast off by ice,

refuge in concentric rings
of black water, their ghosts:

one who smoothed my lissome back,
that carried me against her skin;

another who buried me in soil,
stamped it down.

Freed by rain and wind,
the loosening of the earth,

I stand flank-deep in melt.

The gilding sun calls skies and hillsides
to my mind’s dark eye,
my spirit bones.

I was here before your god.
Cherish my broken form.

First publish by Coast to Coast to Coast