Out Stealing Horses

my mother shakes me awake
hands me my boots to hurry up
Callister says it’s our horses out
damn that new colt
hangover slogged from prom my dress is
a sea of taffeta traded for jeans
flashlight in my teeth
I hitch the gooseneck trailer as
the mossy night
furs against my legs

the dogs stop at the tarmac taillight red
the empty bed of my old truck
rattles into the dark
two miles down the sentinel corn
breaks like a crushed mouth
armed with a set of halters
pockets full of malty oats I
click my tongue and sing
mare-mare after the
skirted swish of stalks

I catch the bay by her tail
sweep a hand over her warm hip she waves
a stripped stalk like a trophy flashes
a surprise blaze of white
on her face click of hoof on hoof and
a low animal chuckle
changes the game to risk I furl
a lock of mane in my fist
swing up on the strange bay
she balks but doesn’t break

rumors of hills slide out from the Tetons
hint of morning between the tasseled rows
a sorrel the silken gray Appy and a roan
beneath me the bay is a secret nudged
toward the sulfur yard light
I press these beasts these delinquents
sleep robbers all of them
holler up at Callister’s boys on the gate
tell your daddy next time I’m
keeping the grullo

the bay goes through my pockets
for the rest of the oats
mare-mare you my new girl
she bobs her head
at the joke lets me
rub her white blaze
for luck

second time this morning
I go home
alone