viii. The Horses
It was all very secret, very hush-hush -
no one knew where they were headed;
the only one who didn’t suffer sickness,
my father was in charge of the horses…
A tilted world, Bear tipped upside down
spiralling clouds like splintered spines
and shimmering on the edge of sight
forbidden cities, unknowable lands.
Packed like meat in the stifling hold
he slithered across their sweaty backs
a teetering, punch-drunk charioteer
harnessing terror and then letting go
the reins. Seas reared, distant ranges,
fell, as suddenly, night-dark, star-still,
pebbled, copse-fenced Cotswold pool.
In the late-summer chill of Belgravia
palsied hands paused above a rash of plans:
maybe swords, bayonets, might be enough -
the age-old means of flesh against flesh…
But how can you kill the already dead?
Lined and waiting on the shore
warrior ghosts of three millennia.
Now the only passage through was fear.
no one knew where they were headed;
the only one who didn’t suffer sickness,
my father was in charge of the horses…
A tilted world, Bear tipped upside down
spiralling clouds like splintered spines
and shimmering on the edge of sight
forbidden cities, unknowable lands.
Packed like meat in the stifling hold
he slithered across their sweaty backs
a teetering, punch-drunk charioteer
harnessing terror and then letting go
the reins. Seas reared, distant ranges,
fell, as suddenly, night-dark, star-still,
pebbled, copse-fenced Cotswold pool.
In the late-summer chill of Belgravia
palsied hands paused above a rash of plans:
maybe swords, bayonets, might be enough -
the age-old means of flesh against flesh…
But how can you kill the already dead?
Lined and waiting on the shore
warrior ghosts of three millennia.
Now the only passage through was fear.
Page(s) 68
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