The World According to Poetry #12
First Love
By Stephanie Wood Miller © 2019
She fills my whole horizon
Looking at those bottomless brown eyes
I know in some sacred self-secret place
That I will never love like this again
Ordinary boundaries
Skin, bone, souls
Lightly breached
We are one unknowable creation
Wholly understanding and understood
I touch the magically soft skin of her nose
Hot, moist breath against the cool air
A bolt of sheer terror shoots through my veins
I take the pommel and bounce light into the saddle
Surprised by how warm and smooth it is
Peering down the straight line of her neck
The world framed between her alert ears
Sitting erect
I have never been so high
Or seen so much
We experience the immutable union
Of horse and rider
The long and longed for moment has arrived
I take the reins
Give her a gentle kick with my heel
And we are off
My heart throbs
Then gallops
Put to the meadow
Under the stars
And out into the wide, wild world