SELECTED FOR
November 29, 2012 Coldfront
This Morning Feature

Horse, Rider

(Acropolis Museum)

Cut clean from the rump, the tail tosses
and vanishes. What remains: the muscles
in the leg, where thigh attaches to flank
and tendons pull from body. The hide,
sanded and shaved. Red rises in the withers,
flushes the skin with a veined, streaky finish.
Eyes gleam like rabbits’ through the fetlock,
what remains: a leg, fractured in four,
fused and balanced on the hoof’s edge.
The rider’s head, left to imagination:
Parian marble left unsanded at the neck,
each curl tightly wound, locks tangled
over the ear, eyes bright and unblemished.
What remains: an ankle, sandal and four
red-flecked toes, fine as a missing finger.

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