Jumpers

One four-headed creature, consisting
of two horses (who will not be able
to separate until they determine whose
legs are whose) and two riders, who,
when they go their separate ways,
will rend, inaudibly, an invisible
membrane of shared motion, posture,
and intention.

This creature, like those delicate
fairy-winged bugs that flit
but a day, is short-lived:

It begins its life at the approach,
reaches adolescence at take-off,
matures into full surging unity
of both riders, both horses,
and even a few rapt watchers
off to one side--at soaring peak
of leap (here, rarely, captured),

but after touch-down rapidly deteriorates
into a froth of flailing hooves
and wrenching asunder of pairs
of winners and losers, men and beasts.

Dean Blehert

Last Updated: October 6, 2002