The horses’ dark coats
gleam indigo
at midnight, five of them
beneath cherry trees
in bloom. Wind rustles
the limbs, petals
falling
into constellations
across deep blue
flanks. Night inverted:
overhead a meadow
starred with blossoms,
each horse a sky
flowered with stars.
Phillip Watts Brown received his MFA in poetry from Oregon State University. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tahoma Literary Review, Camas, Rust + Moth, Sweet Tree Review, and Psaltery & Lyre, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He and his husband live in Logan, Utah.
© 2020, Phillip Watts Brown
Halfway Down the Stairs 