Like the time I dreamt that destiny was a blue horse
and leaving home on her back was chasing the stars.
Dangerous while the years were merciless moving
like a speeding comet. Prayers, useless air
slouched against my arm—damp as leftover tears,
while I was rocking on a Persian hand-tooled saddle.
Dismounting, I watched her race away, and one by one,
little gray hairs slipped down a drain. The horse came again,
a Zuni harness, dotted with turquoise and silver
arrows on her chest. A Phoenix without feathers
riding on her back—an epiphany of sorts—
the past ebbing away like the tide leaving clean sand.
Her sapphire coat was sprinkled with stars. There
was nothing I could do but jump on her back and ride.

Jackie Langetieg has published poems in journals and anthologies, won awards such as WWA’s Jade Ring contest, Bards’ Chair, and Wisconsin Academy Poem of the Year, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has written six books of poems, lastly Snowfall and a memoir, Filling the Cracks with Gold.