Rooms of Open Sky

                    (for Pamela)

The horse itself is motion, the
study sequential
                                                each freeze-frame a figure
of what flowing
                              passage
                                                (walk, trot, canter)
                                                                                  contained
upon a shock of color
a grid engraved
                                                no longer abstract
The depth of perception
                              is not reserved for the eye
alone
              Listening you can
                              hear the sound
of hooves
                                                drumming in the brush stroke
_______________________________________
The pattern spans whatever the heart
              tiled texture & image
                              Shimmer steps through
is not only the eloquence of saying so
across the variegated colored squares but
in time a
                              place you know by hand
& so memory
on the right in blue dots balances
              the flat photo of a fence left of the equine
figure
                              to document this dance
--------------------------------------------------------------
The appaloosa turns her head
GRACE
              (“to be born & live”)
& so the mare’s clear eye, the long
                              muscles in her spotted neck

falling past a turquoise & crimson
chiaroscuro

              dancing at the edge of memory

graceful as soft
                              diffused light
              touching shadow