ALAN FELSENTHAL

 

He was out of harness

 

he was out of harness, hard up, it happens on 
and happens simultaneously in a stance, chance 
or accident a fluke makes into coincidence, he 
was often injury resulting in death, apparent 
as the way things happen without planning, 
particularly a small child, a mishap’s piece 
of bad luck, he was the undesirable event of 
unhappy circumstances and a horse he was 
when not at work, unyielding in the mouth 
a storm that must be weathered if he wants 
to be hard he ages into a person difficult to 
endure, broken, out of man’s sentimentalities. 

 

Ending in a group that repeats itself  

 

were we skipping or dancing when we 
made the bells ring in unison, out 
beginning something clearly, loudly 
turning keys in air the sound of loops, 
picked like the footprint a skater leaves 
moving through a curved path, above 
ground level around we all aimed 
to draw a ring relating to a sphere, 
we wore circlets in our hair, where 
we revolved an axis emerged, area 
bound by cycles, spirals, sports we 
marked with fingers, used traditionally.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan Felsenthal is currently a visiting lecturer at the IIML. He is the co-editor of a chapbook press called The Song Cave. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fence, intersection(s), The Iowa Review, and Sea Ranch.

 

Return to 2010 contents >