I awoke. You weren’t there but there were horses
on the beach. I got up, made believe nothing hurt
and my evidence was horses on the beach
even though the beach horses were remarkably
indifferent to the thrill of horses on the beach.
I went about my day. I went for a run in the surf.
The horses only sauntered, heads slung low
as an apology. With my long hair flowing I felt
like I was nailing the audition for the part of Horse
on a Beach while the actual horses were just kind
of phoning it in. You used to say you worked the way
mountains do, turned bluer the further you got from me
until you disappeared completely. I went to tell you
about the horses. You were right, you’d disappeared
completely. I still wanted to. I wrote it down just in case.