Standing By

By Kathryn Taylor

Their considerable hearts
and soulful eyes
have been looking for
him since yesterday

Looking for
he who gives the hay and water,
he who corrals and opens the walking pen

There’s a commotion
over at the house,
unlike ever before

Stooped over,
restless,
amidst everything descending
onto the property and its humans,
their nostrils quiver,
ears flatten,
while they wait and watch

They sense,
having hearts so vast,
yesterday’s jagged lurch
and shifted bedrock

Presently the two horses, in unison,
raise their heads to the heavens,
and hear the news,
hear the saddest of notes,
sung now by the harp of the house

The two horses, steadfast,
and with hearts so infinite,
are standing by,
standing by

****

Kathryn Taylor is a poet and daughter of an Air Force veteran who served two tours in Vietnam. In the final months of her father’s life, poetry writing became a miraculous and healing gift. Presently, her kitchen table is laden with poems waiting to be chosen for a poetry collection on military family life. She enjoys facilitating writing and poetry workshops for an arts-based charity.