ELEANOR ROSS TAYLOR

Centaur

Child of a reckless mare
    and cautious master,
         young centaur
curbs his love for faster,
    prudently straining
         the reins of careful.
He lifts a toast,
    toe on the table—
         One more cheer?
Pivoting on the least, the most,
    he hears his father’s brakes
         drag gravel,
his mother’s hoofbeats
    gallop
         in his ears.  

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   Contributor’s notes

  Fifteen Poems and Drafts