The Horse

The horse has a 3-acre pasture
but there is a path of matted grass from his shed 
to his sweet-feed bowl in a corner of the pasture.
His horseshoes mark the bare ground where he stands to eat
like an alphabet with the letters U and C
spilled on the ground.
A woman in a headscarf walks a 2-rut road through a far pasture.
A man with a stick walks on the paved road.
The hoof prints of the horses brand the dried mud.
The horse watches the child leave on the school bus 
and return in the afternoon while he waits for his sweet-feed.
His ears shaped like small teepees.
They turn to the airwaves in the wind that travel the world.
The horse picks up on the suffering.
He hears the call of geese, birds, field dogs.
At night the coyotes. 
All the refugees.
While in the day a gray squirrel runs along the fence-line by his bowl.