The World In Which You Live, Just As It Is ~ Joe Wilkins

 

Pretend we’re brown horses
with white like this

on our noses. Pretend
the wind catches only just

our tails behind us. Pretend we’re sister
& brother & we

love one another, & for lunch
there’s grass & crackers

& in the field all the flowers—
red, yellow, & there are blue ones, too,

but don’t eat those! They’re poison.
Pretend we smell wolves.

Pretend we are wolves,
& when we howl

all the horses run, except the littlest one,
so we lick her on her white nose,

& we are all friends on a mountain
chewing flowers.

But then I die, & like this
with leaves & sticks you bury me, & you

are so, so sad, & so am I, & here come
the horses with their big hooves

to pound the dirt down (I have a house now
underground). Do you

miss me? Down here I get
so hungry. Pretend bring me

one more mouthful of flowers.