coiled rope and harness dancing in the bed
Come quick! I cried astride the gelded buckskin

In the pasture, the wild horses snorted and stared
my intrusion catching them napping on their feet

waking with nostrils flared in midday heat as I galloped by
cutting spring-sprung grass like a scythe

kicking up the sod against the fenceline
Father, come quick! You gotta do something!

but before the men could measure her fix
that heifer gave up, no fight left

her heavy tongue unscrolled through a froth
Dad called the neighbor to winch her up

and render her down, the shaggy red hide
put to soak in a 40-gallon drum

So this is what it comes to:
my childhood paradise was your prison

and I couldn't see far enough beyond myself
to know what you went through that winter

You wiped the fog of your breath from the cold window
with the sleeve of your tattered housecoat

wrapped in a green army blanket
crouched over the oil stove

to keep warm as the stiff Nevada wind
wolfed through thin walls

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