crushed cloves and chilies
mingling with the shredded flesh
of beasts that once grazed in the plain
between the sea and the mountains
with vacant stares from black eyes
born into this world with joy and hope
from the wombs of mares with no future
but to fill the stomachs of hungry revelers
as spiced horsemeat
sold from buckets.

sweat slides down deep spines
whose fingers clench like teeth
that can feel the beat of the bass
and the drum of mighty hearts that thundered
in chests heavy from endless journeys thru valleys
fatigued broken silent
that are nourishing warm
thighs and tongues who clutch
at spiced horsemeat
sold from buckets.

when trumpets blare
under the pulsing life of eons of stars
captured in the night sky of our time
the reflection of their hooves
each click each clack
of unshod but calloused soles
muffled by the dust of colonized trails
might be heard in the echoes
of spiced horsemeat
sold from buckets.

bodies blending in the midnight air
melting together hip to hip
sidecast eyes catch the glint the sway
the plastic embrace of muscle

that once twitched under the bit of the fly
that once strained to climb the slopes
that once frothed and foamed and blistered
that once sought unseen empty rest

but is now spiced horsemeat
sold from buckets.

aromas waft from earth and bottles
and mouths that hold the scents
of tissues passed down from noble ancestors
made come to a tangled land no longer known
now stripped of trunk and vine and hide and mane
dried bones of deserts of dead wounds
marrow sucked to survive on the scarred backs
of all consumed as
spiced horsemeat
sold from buckets.

“Angelque” Tropicana D’Haiti, still image modified by Vicky Koski-Karell from the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0V4q226qU8