Bravery By Elisabeth Horan

All white light and yellow braids
astride small prehistoric ponies;
galloping, fearless 
into the abyss.
Slain men
lie waiting
Father Odin - expecting miracles and burials.

They are 
the Cassandras;
Cleopatras -
Lady Lazarus / Red-plumed Phoenix.
They are Rhys, Rich and Browning

They are 
the housewives
the lesbians
the Bishops:
all trans.
Catching together 
the shredded rainbow grouper

They are 
Emily,
a symbol -
Plath in the oven

They are 
the tired mothers;
endless survivors -
they are so loving and so angry.

They are in
my head
my head, 
my head -

Echoing hoofbeats
deep in my cochlea

They are me:
writing, struggling
dodging my own sparks and lightning

Streaking across open meadows
burning like Hellfire
with the acrid smell of death in my nose

Calling me
Calling me 
to bring the words home.

About ​Elisabeth Horan

​Elisabeth Horan is a poet, mother, student, lover of kind people and animals, homesteading in Vermont with her tolerant partner and two young sons. She hopes the earth can withstand us and that humans may learn to be more kind to each other and to Mother Nature.
She has recently been featured at Quail Bell Magazine, Dying Dahlia Review and The Murmur House. Elisabeth is a 2018 MFA Candidate at Lindenwood University and teaches at River Valley Community College in New Hampshire. 
Follow her @ehoranpoet.