The Flea & the Colt
The throbbing blood
that pumps inside the colt
(tethered tight
to the wood
she rubs her neck
against) seizes the flea
(its siphon rigid red,
its gut hydraulics
pumping hot, filling
with the virus
of history)
sucking as men
untie the colt
for Christ.
JOHN EBERSOLE is poetry editor of The Philadelphia Review of Books. His work is forthcoming or has appeared in Southern Humanities Review, storySouth, Bateau, Octopus, Western Humanities Review, and elsewhere. He is assistant professor of English at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.