In The Absence of Horses

These days I admire horses from a distance

Like a forbidden love

For if I linger too long

In thought of their absence,

I feel my heart aching

For those days

The twitching of their velvet lips on my palm

As I offer a slice of apple

When I walked in mud

Amid manure, hay, sweet feed, and pellets

Bouncing in the wind to the same rhythm

As the mane in front of me

Dogs breaking wind from the

hoof shavings they ate

yes, if I linger too long

I will recall

The perfume of horse smell

On the cuffs of my coat

When I returned to school in the absence of horses

And my heart would ache

1-11-2016

©2019 Lenny Wells