from The Stains of Burden and Dumb Luck

I am working on poetry book #3, working on new poems to be collected in teh third volume. It's very different than Outfoxing Coyote and Echolocation, in that it's not really about a specific place, but about a collection of space. We'll see how it turns out...

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Inheriting Her Brother’s Horse

Walking
Away from the
Place, stolen
Like kisses
Between classes,
The world shatters
Upon an axis
Of blood
And betrayal.
Keeping count
Of the vengeance
Painted by numbers
Upon her heart,
The order is
Precise.
Ones are red,
Twos are black,
Threes are white,
And everything else
Pales in shadow,
Fading to grey.
Who will keep time
In this ballad of ‘lost dreams
And hopes pinned
To the chest
Of the boy dying
from a hole
In his heart?

The road looms
Ahead, swimming
A mirror
Reflecting the sky.
She places her
Hands upon the
Worn white leather,
Cracks under her fingers
Lovingly filled
With layers of
Every contrivance
Known to boy-kind.
The crack of his skull
Meets the blood
Pouring from
His heart
And she is amazed
She could wipe
Away all of his blood
From the well-worn
White leather
Interior.
She fixes her stare
Upon the mirror ahead,
And not looking back, even
Once,
She pushes on,
Leaving his ghost
Walking,
His red and white leathers
A portion of himself left
Behind when
His soul moved
And released,
Entering the water
To join the songs
Sung thousands of ways
Since before
His birth.

She rides
The line of red earth
That takes her away
From the scene of
His death
He fades
In the mirror,
Her eyes
Facing
the sun.

© 2009 Carolyn Dunn