Confession
I am having an affair
with the mule next door
everything about him
dazzles long black
tail swishing his backside
like a broom scattering
flies and dust his corded
muscled neck pushing
me along the fence his eyes
dark with spite and sorrow.
Early mornings before the light
we rendezvous. I tramp
the tall grass and thistle
to the corner of our land
where he greets me
gentle mouth nuzzling
my sugared hand. Usually
I am content just to be
near him but sometimes
the urge to climb inside
his body is unbearable.
We are both mongrels born
to parents worlds apart
Lineage a cul-de-sac saddled
with our onliness we understand
our ending how it finishes here
in this field suffering each other
madly in love with apples sugar words
in wind the scent of earth and heaven.
Copyright © 2003 Moira Magneson. Originally published in The Spoon River Poetry Review, 2003. Reprinted with the permission of the author.