Hoof

war spit
curly haired motherfucker
came down here
to tell me
what was what

and then fell in love
with his best friend

I stomped
snorted
growled
turned my head
and groaned

hey now come on
smoke skin
I saw you coming
right up over that ridge
on the train bridge
in the middle of the night

'Can I come home with you?'
you're so fucking pretty
you think I haven't seen
those same mountians
I was born here
straight from the boulders
in the valley

we climbed them
stomping
the herd
clicking
their heels
down the road

and when that horse 
died on the fence
we saved her skull
and the old farmer
more practical than us  
said she had many foals

our wars were over a hundred years ago
those hooves still echo
over long buried battlefields
ghosts still wander this land
from a far flung tradition
to yours

stagger 
too much liquor
and even quicker
tried to bite me  
and that old dusty
toppled down
church
reared up in my head
and the thorny wild roses
made a canopy
of green and pink
and I only ever saw you after dark
when our worlds
attempted with rather futile measures
to blend
and failed

and in this old land
with new people
in this broken down
cracked right up
leaking and seeping
body
I heard them running
hoof to packed dirt
and let you go
over that rocky cliff face
in spirit
more Devil
than I was ever any kind of good