Hoofprints in the Horizon

It started off as a simple Friday, a day off, the summer sun peeking out from clouds,
fog rolling over the hills, playing hide and seek with the road as the car rumbled on.
A quickened breeze kissed the opening in the glass on my right, it hissed as the sky
brightened. I breathed, kicking my boots together, playing with the zippers,
folding and unfolding blue jean hems. Car stopped in a dusty driveway, a sudden
whiff of grass and horse manure flowing into the window. Breathing deeper, a smile.

Boots hit gravel and dirt, making their way down to the tiny brown barn as goats
spoke with each other, begging for a hand to pet their heads. Boot hits concrete,
a sharp whinny fills the air, my girl. The eyes smile as boots crunch down the row,
third stall on the left. She is there, poking her nose through the bars as far as the velvet
can fit through. A quiet laugh, the bolt clanks open. A hand down her soft neck,
sweat stricken in the summer heat. She knows why I'm here.

Leading her out, leather and hay takes over the air. Tripled buckets overturned,
the swing of a leg onto a hairy back. Human skin resting against the hair of a horse.
Walking, lumbering around the yard. Cheek rests against neck as she walks.
I know she won't leave me behind as she stops to munch on the rich green
blades below. As midday rolls around, so does my leg as I tumble off her back.

The snaked hose rolls out from its bundle, water turning from hot to cold
as it runs through my fingers and into the dirt making a mud pile to slink
down the hill.She nuzzles my shoulder, asking for the coolness of the water.
She shakes as it covers here, cascading water onto me. It does not matter,
I laugh. Bath over, I let her go after a simple kiss on the nose and a cookie to praise.

It is the last time the summer horizon will hit my boots in this barn.
Once that sky falls, it will be separation, the orange fighting with the black
of night and days, weeks until I see her again. But as she rolls in the dirt, legs
tumbling over each other, her back arching to reach just that last spot,
I know I will be back. I will always be back.