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                              Horse

ask the name
know how the sun is carried the long day
above the wind
how Turquoise Woman’s son
laddered dreams of horses down a rainbow bridge
to rain on a cotton-mouthed world
milk & bone mares moon-white
sand shining buckskins snorting at the damp earth smell
colts shivering under unformed threats
Spanish hands forgotten
black as starless night buried in a cleft canyon

chant the war god’s horse song:

beautiful horses -- slim like a weasel
my horse has a hoof like striped agate
his fetlock is like an eagle-feather
a true horse has justice in his heart

War Eagle thunders on a dappled summer stallion
a storm folded black in black
in bristling eagle feathers
white buckskin fringes streaming
rain knifes the wind
hammer-hooves echo
flint arrows spark lightning
buffaloes drum the earth
a river dressed in prairie grass
the ghost dance brings it

I am everlasting & peaceful
I stand on my horse
a true horse has justice in his heart

pickups slide the rail into Gallup
coming down from steel cages on credit 
levered  with a rifle’s oiled joints
the sun bullets in uncracked glass & chrome
hang a beaded eagle plume
from the rear-view mirror
to pray for a head of mixed waters
welling from another world

        

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                            03.05.05