She Had Some Horses

Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at a wrung sponge.

Joy Harjo is a Creek (or Muskogee) Indian poet. I first learned about her in my first year of college, when I took a class called Women's Poetry and Performance. I read a lot of good poetry in that class. Harjo's poetry blew me away, and still does. I think of "She Had Some Horses" every time I drive past the Wild Horse Monument.

She Had Some Horses, by Joy Harjo

She had some horses.

She had horses who were bodies of sand.
She had horses who were maps drawn of blood.
She had horses who were skins of ocean water.
She had horses who were the blue air of sky.
She had horses who were fur and teeth.
She had horses who were clay and would break.
She had horses who were splintered red cliff.

She had some horses.

She had horses with full, brown thighs.
She had horses who laughed too much.
She had horses who threw rocks at glass houses.
She had horses who licked razor blades.

She had some horses.

Read the rest of the poem here.