REINING IN

What can I say?
But that the world

Has become heavier
My clothes don’t feel right

And my left hand is scribbling
A dark sobbing language

I don’t understand.
What can I say?

But that my heart
Is an angry horse

Snorting its resentment
At being ridden hard —

Away from home
Or the taste of home

Or the hope of home.—
That place where roses

Are bruised. Where the
Skin is tattooed by ropes.

Where I can’t even
wrestle sleep. What

can I say? That the reigns
are Tangled? My arms

Are weary? That I want
To let the horse run free?

What can I say to a world on fire?
Or to the little boy trembling
In my eyes — ?


Copyright 2006 c.a. leibow