Dark Horse

          Where to look for ourselves before the onset 
of fading? Before the abductions of dream

           minus the complications of light? A pencil
stroked the sides of the child's nose, 

           coaxing it to aspire higher. Her teeth
followed a crooked trail to the summit. 

           One morning she finally pried loose a wayward 
sliver of bone from the soft bed of her gum— 

           that's when she knew that horoscopes are 
only provocations. One's nature is surely more 

           than the residue of delirious infighting: whether 
the monkey is smarter than the tortoise who is treacle

           slow; who claimed that part of the plant without 
fruit but with roots that could  still, surprisingly, grow.