I like the lady horses best,
how they make it all look easy,
like running 40 miles per hour
is as fun as taking a nap, or grass.
I like their lady horse swagger,
after winning. Ears up, girls, ears up!
But mainly, let’s be honest, I like
that they’re ladies. As if this big
dangerous animal is also a part of me,
that somewhere inside the delicate
skin of my body, there pumps
an 8-pound female horse heart,
giant with power, heavy with blood.
Don’t you want to believe it?
Don’t you want to tug my shirt and see
the huge beating genius machine
that thinks, no, it knows,
it’s going to come in first.
Ada Limón is the author of three books of poetry, including Lucky Wreck (Autumn House Press 2006), This Big Fake World (Pearl Editions 2007), and Sharks in the Rivers (Milkweed Editions 2010). Her work has appeared in numerous magazines including Harvard Review, Poetry Daily, and The New Yorker. She is currently finishing her first novel, a book of essays, and a new collection of poems. She works as a writer and lives in Kentucky and California.
