WINTER

by Devlin De La Chapa

The horse drove heavy
beneath their winding feet

above the pasty red clay caliche
midnight black and moonlight white cursed

blistering coals paving the dense trails
between heaven and hell’s gorge

her body was weighty
within the barren of arms

the poison of love’s tempting betrayal
became a burden across the wintry desert

the tears that fell from within scorned eyes
once virgin were thrust between the throes

of the rains that came early in the year
and with it, yielding the scour of sin

slithering between the bare of peace
breaking the fruits with pride over lust

now she rendered paralyzed within those other souls
her spirit resting amongst those lost to the winter

he remembers chopping wood
beneath the vacant of his own soul

listening to crickets scrambling their dead
their heartbreak settling

like decaying cinders
on his dead lover’s tongue

just before he pulled the reins
all that remained on saddle

was the first crest of snows fall
and a bottle of piss warm Whiskey

drinking from the horse who dances on ground to the beat of drums
tuneless within the raging fires of the dead he carried