Girl on a Bolting Horse

The horse’s head forward, not surrendering,

the girl vertical in the stirrups

the black sky gathering steel.

Wind slicing the hair from her face,

the dark curve of herself going faster —

the blur of her brothers, standing transfixed;

she, holding her breath, bone-afraid

and flying . . .

©Katherine Gallagher

(from Circus-Apprentice, Arc Publications,  2006)