The Horses

I wasn’t usually the gambling type

so I was surprised when she dragged me down there

I placed twenty bucks

on the one with the sexiest name

that I don’t even remember now

though I wish I did, it would

make this story better;

it was a busy day and the bleachers were packed

with the humble mumble of the crowd

suddenly the bell

clang of gate and intrinsic whirl of the dirt

all that meat straining and foaming

a mass of twisted muscle and whipping men

and the people with their roar

their hey! hey hey! go boy go!

slapping knees and straining for a view of the turn

she’s gripping my thigh through the denim

separated now, the beasts in their urge

a line, with the leaders two abreast

riders a hunched silhouette, angled into the wind

as they round and they round,

hooves chewing the dirt as if for harvest

the strain, animal leans, the rider leans, the crowd leans

I lean as they close in and…

someone is the winner, but she tells me

it wasn’t my horse

so I lost my bet

I disagree, sweetheart

I feel I got my money’s worth