Horses in Pompeii & Elsewhere
You were the one to pull me from
the twisted stirrup, the weight of the horse
writhing, wanting to shed me and run
or lie down in the stall and rest some. You
of the quick act and judgment—years later
not really smiling when we met in the aisle
where the fruit was browning. To have saved me
from being crushed by that mammal most girls loved
at one time in their lives. Now, this horse found still
in its harness. An excavation of the general’s companion
with its wood and bronze trimmings. Buried
in the ready state, having suffocated. All the ash
and heat—this slow or sudden death. Near,
the wine press and fresco and sea view.
When you helped me stand, saying
there would be bruising and an ache
for days, your voice was tender.
And though it was difficult to ride again
so soon, I did, a new horse chosen. That path
taken that led across the meadow
and down into the woods and then back
around for the final sanctioned gallop.
Kelly R. Samuels is a Best of the Net and two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, as well as the author of two chapbooks: Words Some of Us Rarely Use (Unsolicited, 2019) and Zeena/Zenobia Speaks (Finishing Line, 2019). Her poems have recently appeared in RHINO, Cold Mountain Review, DMQ Review, The Pinch, and Quiddity.