<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="line-height: normal; -webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Horses</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""> <br class=""><br class="">
<br class="">
In truth I am puzzled most in life<br class="">
by nine horses.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">I’ve been watching them for eleven weeks<br class="">
in a pasture near Melrose.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Two are on one side of the fence and seven<br class="">
on the other side.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">They stare at one another from the same places<br class="">
hours and hours each day.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">This is another unanswerable question<br class="">
to haunt us with the ordinary.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">They have to be talking to one another<br class="">
in a language without a voice.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Maybe they are speaking the wordless talk of lovers,<br class="">
sullen, melancholy, jubilant.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Linguists say that language comes after music<br class="">
and we sang nonsense syllables</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">before we invented a rational speech<br class="">
to order our days.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">We live far out in the country where I hear<br class="">
creature voices night and day.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Like us they are talking about their lives<br class="">
on this brief visit to earth.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">In truth each day is a universe in which<br class="">
we are tangled in the light of stars.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Stop a moment. Think about these horses<br class="">
in their sweet-smelling silence.</span></p></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="">- Jim Harrison</span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><br class="">
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