My Green And White Mares Poem by Eli Spivakovsky

My green and white mares
have bracelets with bells around their ankles
so when they gallop it sounds like
coins being tossed into a treasure house
I played the circle game with them
I fed them apples and a little sugar
I set them loose to the sea
I gave up their reins in my hand
and they came back for me

And I, in turn, came back to you
those kisses we left in Winter
will they ever catch up?
the mares were restless that day
almost rebellious
I submerged a bowl full of peonies
and watched them drown
slowly their petals came apart
as if falling through air

I found remnants of your adoring paramour
her sugar-dust, angelica scent
under our embroidered pillow slips
I send you away and the dolphins spin circles
away from their usual territory, ignore human signals
I feel like a butterfly tortured by young boys
with a magnifying glass and the sun
my wings burnt off
my short life made shorter
I feed the mares sugar-cubes
all the apples are rotten
I eat them instead

my hands tremble, a forest in the distance shivers
a breeze runs through a thicket
I lie down in it, it's too late for someone to be out
especially a woman, I pretend that I'm an acorn or a pine needle - only just alive, almost lifeless, perhaps even dying

I dream I am made of metal, shiny and smooth with only a beating heart left to prove I'm not an android but human
I dream my heart is a flower and every kiss you give her peels away one of the petals until it's just a raw bud bleeding
I dream I am growing feathers on my face but I'm so resistant my wings won't push through

When I come back there are peonies everywhere...and a note 'Forgive me for you are my symphonic dance, my sweet-cake, my damsel, I should never have dove and I will never dive far away from you again.'

I take the mares for a cantor across the beach.
The green one is maturing now, it's been almost a year.
I feed them hay and sweet-grass.
Their bracelets tinkle and remind me of your necklace
the one I bought for you to give you my apologies.
It's time to write back:
'I like how you used the word 'dove' it came mean 2 things at once. You dove in the water or you captured a dove and you my sweet have done both.'