Wish horse (poem)

wishes are horses, after all.
horses need taming
and even then,
they are never quite on your side. only
in sleep, do their legs lock into place, but
sleeping, they are most ready to bolt, just like
wishes. they get carried away
into unhinged dreams that
tell too much, that
hobble along on iron shoes of
trusting night.
horses are wishes,
in that way, for they ask very little -
some grass, some space, some
new deserted
untarred road, apples,
maybe sugar. they do not ask to be
broken, though they rarely bite if they are.
no, they rarely rear or break your neck
even if you do break their will.
soon, they learn your will is grass, and sugar, and
stables, full of others similarly broken.

horses are wishes too,
echoes of the wild and true
lovers, sweet and salt, and warring,
plodding, old, old, beasts.

(C) Annie Zaidi, July 2007