Swans


 

The Dead Horse

                                    (for John and Gilles)

by Gerard Donnelly Smith

Poem

November 1, 2004   

 

That dead, stinking horse does know that it is dead,
hopelessly mired in hourglass sand: blue blood, red blood
thick as oil seeping down, guzzling down.
But where's the dead-horse rider, still riding as if nothing transpired,
as if no warnings signs existed as plain as a blue blood
standing in the middle-of-the-stream in wide-eyed rapture,
there floating beside him the dead and stinking horse,
buzzing round the corpse a spontaneous generation:
flies, flies, flies and even more flies: as redundant as
falsehoods once the full truth and nothing but is known.
Still, the dead horse sweats, steam rising from that wreck-of-flesh,
while from the corner of the rider's mouth, spittle drools.
The stream-bed is dry; the horse's tongue is bloated and swollen.
The stars in the desert sky sparkle, twinkle
in the dead-horse rider's eyes, while the cavalry
searches the empty tombs, the dumps and storage depots
for some arc-of-the-covenant, some proof-for-the-people
that the call-from-beyond was more than voices inside his empty skull.


 
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Poetry on Swans

US Elections & Democracy on Swans

 

Gerard Donnelly Smith on Swans (with bio).

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Published November 1, 2004
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