Andrea Potos: “Burren Messenger”
BURREN MESSENGER
County Clare, Ireland
At the jagged stone fence pocked with lichen
and moss, the wild horse stood tall, speckled-grey
tinged silver like a beacon of moonlight,
ears perked, staring at me
as I stood beside the car, waiting
for my husband and daughter to return
from hopping the rain-sieved limestone
down to the bristling sea and back
while I worried for their safety,
while I worried for my mother
across the Atlantic and fading fast
from lesions we did not know had spread.
I kept turning to the horse,
erect in stillness and gravity
and a strange promise of balm,
as if sentinel
on the border between worlds.
Andrea Potos is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently A Stone to Carry Home (Salmon Poetry, Ireland) and Arrows of Light (Iris Press). She received the 2016 William Stafford Prize in Poetry.