Gallop is to Horse as Fall is to
A. Angel
A gelding, an emasculated seraph:
both know the pinch of deference.
Say the horse finds an orchard
suited to brushing the rider
from his back, and say the angel
gives God the brush-off.
Both would bolt after that,
both would go as fast as four legs
or gravity would take him.
B. Rain
Think about the sound,
the drumming of hooves
and drops of water.
C. Fall
If you have seen the way power
moves through a horse and a horse
through a field, if you have paid
even the smallest attention
to seasons, you’ll understand.
The throughline is the unstable
gilding of living things;
the throughline is a glory that can be
neither denied nor sustained.
D. Man
The man will try to hold on. He
will wrap his arms around the
horse’s neck. Do not worry. He
will tumble off in a soft place.
Jane Zwart teaches at Calvin University, where she also co-directs the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Threepenny Review, The Poetry Review (UK), Bad Lilies (UK), and Ploughshares, as well as other journals and magazines.