Centaur’s Requiem

Your hooves drawn together underbelly
shoulders in mud your mane
of wisp and soil deporting all the horse of you

your longhaired neck
eyes jaw yes and ears
unforgivably human on such a creature
unforgivably what you are
deposited in the grit-kicked field of a champion

tender neck and nostrils teacher water-lily suction-spot
what you were marvelous we could not stand

Night drops an awaited storm
driving in to wreck your path
Foam on your hide like flowers
where you fell or fall desire