Seven Ways of Looking at a Starry Horse

Posted on February 27, 2019 by John Biscello

A poem written in response to Izumi Yokoyama’s “Wild Horse,” for an upcoming ekphrasis event.

wild horse

1. The cosmos has no time

for serious thought.

Only horseplay,

amorphic in a milkbath of dark matter.

2. Horse.

A noun fashioned

from the symmetry of wind.

3. They shoot wild horses, don’t they?

Hungry ghosts cannot be broken,

only fed light

from unknown sources.

4. Close your eyes. There is no horse.

Only a horse-shaped teardrop

running infinite lengths

to touch grief, its course

the majestic blood-let of dying stars.

5. If you stare into the horse’s moon-seed eye

long enough,

eventually the horse’s eye closes.

This is not rocket science.

6. Eternity, a rocking horse,

hinged on the fasting threads

of music unending.

7. Am I a horse dreaming myself the cosmos,

or the cosmos dreaming through the equine bones

of a wild snorting god, patient and noble?

About John Biscello

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, writer, poet, performer, and playwright, John Biscello, has lived in the high-desert grunge-wonderland of Taos, New Mexico since 2001. He is the author of four novels, Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale, Raking the Dust, Nocturne Variations, and No Man’s Brooklyn; a collection of stories, Freeze Tag, two poetry collections, Arclight and Moonglow on Mercy Street; and a fable, The Jackdaw and the Doll, illustrated by Izumi Yokoyama. He also adapted classic fables, which were paired with the vintage illustrations of artist, Paul Bransom, for the collection: Once Upon a Time, Classic Fables Reimagined. His produced, full-length plays include: LOBSTERS ON ICE, ADAGIO FOR STRAYS, THE BEST MEDICINE, ZEITGEIST, U.S.A., and WEREWOLVES DON’T WALTZ.

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