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Despite the light
in my steps leading the hired help
back to the place where I keep the shovel
there is a way my Horse Head presses
against the dust that tangles the warmth.
My Horse Head comes in many colors—
the color of roasting
the color of the most private parts of withered cowboys
the color of America at sunset—
some more pleasing than others.
May I unveil my Horse Head to you?
Bumbling into the street my Horse Head
without a clue
as to what the traffic signals mean.
Making all sorts of racket my Horse Head
gallops between the poorly parked
cars and their impossible difference
between curb-sat and trotting.
My Horse Head never stops.
My Horse Head at random lets his body go—
into the intersection
unwieldy in the mayor's pasture
plump thanks to the oats.
My Horse Head chomps.
My Horse Head in the cupboard
snarling holes in the box.
There is the point in the fence
where you know you've exited the lot.
There is the point in the cleaning
of the barn when my Horse Head
knows I got rid of too much.
He says, I might be a Horse Head
but I still appreciated the chickens!
I still nod out of the broken window
barred teeth white enough to brighten the day.
In an unexpected twist
My Horse Head will let this body go
after years atop it, my useless racing and blur.
My Horse Head will die without me
and my father will shine up the skull for the flowerbed.
I will die without my Horse Head.
Just a gap in the clutter. And in case I forget
after the years wither my vines, I've written it down
right here: "Ask not what
your Horse Head did for you, etc."
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TYLER GOBBLE is chapbook editor for Magic Helicopter Press and host of the Everything Is Bigger reading series at Malvern Books in Austin, TX. He has plopped out four chapbooks, most recently 48 Pornos (Safety Third Enterprises, 2013), with another coming from Radioactive Moat Press soon, and his first full-length will be out from Coconut Books in the fall of 2014. He likes disc golf, tank tops, and bacon, and yes, in that order. More at www.tylergobble.com. |