Windward Review Volume 19 (2021): Empathy and Entropy

ire’ne lara silva
in this dream of blue horses*
there are no roads only undulating land in every direction only
bodies beautiful and blue and lit by the moon only the slight coolness that
night brings after the heat of the day only our sister wind our brother wind
that both blow against us and carry us along
we were not born here but our mothers’ mothers’ mothers called
this land their home the bones of our ancestors do not live in the first few
feet of earth under our hooves but listen close listen close and you can
hear the thundering of their hooves their bones a few feet deeper only a
few feet deeper our mothers’ mothers’ mothers called this their land their
home and the land says oh my long lost long legged children and we the
long lost long legged children whimper mother mother mother to the earth
in this dream of blue horses we are returned to the land of our ancestors
we are wild again but then did we ever lose our wildness we were
only waiting and our children born free do not remember captivity they
would call us feral but we were never truly domesticated we only bided our
time none of us had to remember freedom or our stories or the structure
of our families the knowledge was never taken from us we were only prisoners
to the bit and the bridle and the saddle and the spur but our spirits
were never anything but free and even then we dreamed and we dreamed
and we ran and we ran
in this dream of blue horses in this dream that is our living our
breathing our being we run as one all our bodies all our hooves all our
hearts all our flared nostrils all the stretch and coil of the meat and muscle
of us made one made a river under the light of the rising moon and the
waning sun this was always our land this was always our freedom this was
always our strength we thunder we thunder we thunder
*Inspired by the following article: https://www.livescience.com/9589-surprising-history-america-wild-horses.html
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Empathy / Entropy