by Pax Morrigan
More Horses
What do beasts of burden
taste as they’re broken:
the needs of the commanding
species, not so much their orders
as their losses. The bit is like blood,
always described as metallic,
as though it was drawn from
a roiling core and cooled by
the tongue of a stuttering
prophet. In medicine the true
practice is in bone and an organ
processing resentment. Occasionally
these elements delight in forgetting
the basics: Multiplication or how
a waltz is meant to control the sweep
of both time and its participants.
Soldiers of the mouth: pinched,
pulled, culled from original
continents we refuse to think about,
because we are innocent; because
innocence is belief, in great chains
and superior mastery, the right to
guide through the corners of the lips
and the arc of the palette.
Jane Rosenberg LaForge‘s third collection of poetry will be Medusa’s Daughter, forthcoming
from Animal Heart Press. Her 2018 novel, The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great
War (Amberjack Publishing) was a finalist in the annual Eric Hoffer awards in two categories.
Her 2014 memoir is An Unsuitable Princess (Jaded Ibis Press), and she has previously published
four chapbooks of poetry and two full-length collections, the most recent being 2017’s Daphne
and Her Discontents (Ravenna Press). She lives in New York and reviews books for American
Book Review and reads poetry for COUNTERCLOCK literary magazine.
Pax Morrigan loves to explore the world at all scales, writes poetry and occasionally takes photos. Recently, she officially adopted a tree. You can find her on Twitter @paxmorrigan.