The First Horse

by Haolun Xu

The modern horse
is beloved. But the first horse

lived as an unnamed
creature. Meanwhile,

even the word
animal is suspect.

How each word
is a carefully made tale.

My father tells me
the first horse was

as small as a cat, a rodent
the height of a knee.

How noble it is, to understand
an ancestor. What is a warrior

to a wound, singular
and down the chest

like natural lightning.

Because I was happy there,
in a time awaiting instruction.

This one can now perform dressage.
In a hundred years, we will even help

horses do calculus. They,
who bear tomorrow’s

knowledge. We curse them
with excellence.

Because there is good work
to be done, in this blooming

and wondrous epoch.
Because someone has won

the story of life
by protecting their precious thing.

Meanwhile, I drop my losses on the ground,
to make a trail of crumbs

which the mice shall eat
as they go home.

Haolun Xu is a poet and filmmaker born in Nanning, China. He was raised in New Jersey. His poetry has appeared in Guernica, Gulf Coast, Narrative, and more. Haolun is the director of two short films, Long Beach and Winter Prayer.