Sylvia Santiago - Canadian Badlands. Horsethief Canyon (124).jpg

Merril D. Smith – Horses

The day we saw the horses,

like apparitions, pale against the rocks,

time froze

where before it had galloped,

now there was stilled wonder, sight and breath.

Too soon, there were other beasts,

blood, spears, and silenced hearts.

But see our handprints joined?

And I have remembered the horses,

painted them here on the cave wall—

in frozen stride they wait

for us forever.

Merril D. Smith is a poet who lives in southern New Jersey. Her work has been published in poetry journals and anthologies, including Black Bough Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Storms, Fevers of the Mind, and Nightingale and Sparrow. Her full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts (Nightingale & Sparrow Press) was Black Bough Poetry’s December 2022 Book of the Month. Twitter: @merril_mds Instagram: mdsmithnj Blog: merrildsmith.org

Photograph: Canadian Badlands. Horsethief Canyon (124) by Sylvia Santiago

Sylvia Santiago creates with words, images, and combinations of the two. Her work appears in Cutbow Quarterly, Ellipsis Zine, Harpy Hybrid Review, and elsewhere. Find her on Twitter: @sylviasays2