Flute Music

The Sybarites taught some of their horses to dance to flute music.
This sometimes led to embarrassment on the battlefield.
More than the bracelet of
massed shields, it was the light
on the flanks of prancing
horses that mesmerised
the enemy… In pricked
ears, the dulcet breath of
wind in high trees as a
blushing warrior broke
rank, sashayed on his light-
footed beast towards them,
rupturing their line, their
faces immobilised
as they waited with clutched
spears and ambivalent-
ly poised hooves, watching man
and horse frisk, whirl, go through
their paces — disarmed by
that errant sight as if
by a centaur waltzing.