Horsewomen

Praise the semitendinocus muscle, the wide, rounded
   hindquarters of horses
 and the strong thighs and round, muscular buttocks of
  women who ride horses;
praise incipient strength gaining in the thighs and spines of
   girls who ride horses
 (gait of girlhood, its rising trot that leads to the canter of
   knowing about horses).

Women who have re-centered their lives owing, in part, to
   horses,
  are shy of nothing, strong as horses,
ample with muscle, like horses;
  their poster conveys respect from horses, and more than
   horses.

There are women who grew up with horses
 or made their way through years to console themselves
   at last with horses—
horses, that do not question the authority of women,
   horses, that never criticize the shapes or stature of women,

horses whose backs accommodate women.
 Horses will listen to women,
even the awkward girl bulky with adolescence and not yet a
   woman.
 She will develop from her thighs and spine into a woman:

woman broad and powerful on the powerful broad backs of
   horses.

Copyright © 2005 Ann E. Michael All rights reserved
from One Trick Pony
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission