HERE TO HELP

Watching the corrals from a distance:
young men a horseback dancing in the sort
of cows from calves before branding

amid a discordant chorus, the same
plaintive song of years worn thin
that holds the heart in place as the eyes

fade and the mind wanders a far
ridge searching for the first split
in the trail that leads to this short

moment of chance and circumstance—
apart and beyond the world’s fear and all
the raw conflicts that feed it senseless.

A man rides by the seat of his pants,
pockets of memory that reach for the rhythm
of a horse collected, the singing twine.