Beast bears you, broken- both.
At once; the motion of wind and
the music of war tear apart every stillness:
feel the weight anchored in the balls of your feet.
Arise, firmly in iron footholds, arise!

Get on top; flirt with domination;
use your body; declare where to go.
Bound destinations; bound fates.
To charge forth at all is to break free.

Become a cartographer: map out animals;
Follow fur growth— unchangeable as riverflow.
Note topography changes— fetlock to forelock.
Respect the animal as a place to belong.

Momentarily saddled, heaven is human.
Remember? As a girl, impregnable
reverence for heaven as a Big Blue Horse.
Feel heaven beneath your seat.
Know your weight.

Percussionist cavalry: I say,
render the ground to the surface of a drum;
let legs fall like beating mallets upon the earth.
Feel that rhythm snap into you,
allow it the space; wrap yourself around it.

Spur on; chase yourself
and all you have lost.
Tramp onwards! To Blue Ridges and red barns.
Realize loss is not yours alone;
the cavalcade was built upon it.

Reign it in; wonder always
about your mother: her losses.
Have they met girlhood dreams of heaven?
Ride now for them;
for their place atop the Big Blue Horse.
Make them into your kings.