Horse Queen of the Forest

Anno Sandlin

my mother gave me an 

empty milk pail and said

“go seek out the horse queen

of the forest. we need some

horse milk for greek yogurt.

your cousins are coming over

to play video games”

so I walked out into the forest

through the treacherous depths 

of mankind’s depravity

past the sickening corruption

of predators and opportunists

sticking their insecurities into

oak trees shaped like humans

and at the edge of the clearing

i see the horse queen of the forest

this hairy, transcendent priestess

god’s most perfect creation

she floats over to me slowly

prancing on a walkway of pure light

upheld by her radiant aura

four rows of kardashian eyelashes

eyeballs on either side of her head

she heaves her gigantic

horse sized noggin

and thuds it on my lap

i brush her glorious mane

like an antique doll

“hey can i milk you?”

i get straight to the point

perhaps I have no manners 

a chorus of heavenly voices,

dying horse angels, they echo

“everything is temporary, but waste is forever”

she excretes some concentrated milk paste

from her glistening nose 

i scrape it off and place it in my bucket

she shudders her horse lips, thbhthbhbh

“this world is a mess” she whinnies

then closes her eyes, exhausted

i lean down and press my forehead onto hers

in that warm, divine moment i think

“if she was a unicorn, i’d be dead right now”