Speed
James Howell

There is a distance between
cupped fold of hand
and hazel-mossed face
that begs crossing.

I gather streaming sight in hand,
daring to lick eyes up
at this mountain of muscle,
hair, hoof; she seems the force
of all desire unridden.

Midnight-eyes thin to slit
while breath claps in bolts.

She paws at sun with nail-head foot
before growing long with speed
among hay-bales warped in
summer’s heat into whorls
like ten hundred sleeping stars.
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