-
The Soldier Inside the Horse
- The Missouri Review
- University of Missouri
- Volume 28, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2005
- p. 212
- 10.1353/mis.2005.0038
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
The Missouri Review 28.1 (2005) 212
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The Soldier Inside the Horse
David Hernandez
A horse disemboweled on a battlefield
for the soldier to crawl inside.A battlefield once green, once shagged
with bluegrass, now gouged and smoldering.The soldier once a boy and now
a man inside a horse hollowed out.The horse then the soldier's costume,
the mouth an opening for his rifleand not a mouth chewing the bluegrass.
Once the eye sockets cradled eyesand now peepholes for the soldier
to survey the battlefield, smolderingand gouged. Once green, once a boy
with strawberry jelly on his lips.Once a ghost for Halloween with eyeholes
scissored into a bedsheet. An enemycrosses the battlefield so gunfire
from the mouth of the horse,so death. The man inside a solider,
the soldier once a boy who wanteda pony. The horse once a horse,
galloping where the world was green.
...