Michael Bazzett
Rain
A horse is made of meat and bone.
Yet mine is made of mud and grass.
I built it up with slapping hands
when rain came over the mountains.
Then slowly I worked its thick
form free with a sodden sound
and galloped the rain-soft ground
as sun split the clouds wide open.
The wind was cold and earth-scent
flared my nostrils with each step.
There is no saddle or bit. We fit
like folded hands. I pass wavering
stands of birch and then villages
where the women lift their heads
while cutting carrots on a board.
I ride for days and then rain
returns. The horse grows
so heavy its hooves begin
to split on stones and I know
that it will soon return
into the earth like a lover.
Michael Bazzett’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, The Sun, Oxford Poetry, 32 Poems and Sixth Finch. His debut collection, You Must Remember This, (Milkweed Editions, 2014) won the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry, and his verse translation of the Mayan creation epic, The Popol Vuh, is forthcoming from Milkweed. Visit him at michaelbazzett.com.
Return to March 2016 Edition
A horse is made of meat and bone.
Yet mine is made of mud and grass.
I built it up with slapping hands
when rain came over the mountains.
Then slowly I worked its thick
form free with a sodden sound
and galloped the rain-soft ground
as sun split the clouds wide open.
The wind was cold and earth-scent
flared my nostrils with each step.
There is no saddle or bit. We fit
like folded hands. I pass wavering
stands of birch and then villages
where the women lift their heads
while cutting carrots on a board.
I ride for days and then rain
returns. The horse grows
so heavy its hooves begin
to split on stones and I know
that it will soon return
into the earth like a lover.
Michael Bazzett’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, The Sun, Oxford Poetry, 32 Poems and Sixth Finch. His debut collection, You Must Remember This, (Milkweed Editions, 2014) won the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry, and his verse translation of the Mayan creation epic, The Popol Vuh, is forthcoming from Milkweed. Visit him at michaelbazzett.com.
Return to March 2016 Edition