Recreating the Horse
by Kelle Groom
I say moon is horses in the tempered dark/because horse
is the closest I can get to it-
Jack Gilbert "Finding Something"This proves that time is a circle, you say
Handing me polaroids you've taken of yourself,
Waist-length brown hair, flyaway
Rooster cut sprouting from your crown,
Face xanaxed, apostolic.
I've never known a man as afraid of the cold.
Dressing it like any wound, I tell you
I remember your body beneath mine. It helps
That your face is unchanged, dry kisses the brush
Of a cricket.
I'm tired of the chain of bruises that fingers leave
On my wrist, climbing iron scaffolding at night
To lie down on stages, afraid of cancer bracelets,
Losing the barefoot girl.
When I ask what you want, the third answer
Is your true one.
© 2005 Kelle Groom
Kelle Groom (Love Shack, Recreating the Horse) lives in Orlando and was raised in Massachusetts, Hawaii, Texas, Spain, and Florida. Her poems have appeared in AGNI Online, Crab Orchard Review, DIAGRAM, Florida Review, The New Yorker, Witness and elsewhere. Her collections of poems are Underwater City (University Press of Florida 2004) and Luckily (Anhinga Press 2006).
