We said goodbye to Tessie (Mariposa Cirsti) on June 19, 2021. (She was born May 25, 2003.) She was my spiritual warhorse, a mare I brought into my life because…
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The WNIJ Perspective In the winter, the barn doors stick. It’s as though the ground grows up and grabs the bottoms, but it’s the sun melting snow on the roof…
May 12, 2020-Things Get Better WNIJ Perspective Fifty years ago, I halted my horse by the mandrakes, far from the house, so my parents would not hear my sobs. I…
The next time you go for a walk, feel your feet walking across the ground. What do your footsteps sound like? Listen to their speech. What are they saying? Do…
Ash Wednesday Because I do not hope to turn againBecause I do not hopeBecause I do not hope to turnDesiring this man’s gift and that man’s scopeI know longer strive…
We have an elm that towers over our barn. The wind rocks her branches and I see a big woman, her eyes closed, swaying as if to fierce prayers.
For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and…
Just Friends I was the girl they gave the safe hearts to. –the candies with notes stamped in red.I couldn’t be trusted with Adore or Kiss MeAnytime because the boys…
With freezing rain last week, then cold, with no warmth to melt it, the weather reaches for my neck, bites hard, leaving a mark. I think “batter my heart three-personed…
I stood in Tessie’s stall sifting shavings, manure and plates of frozen urine. The barn’s colors were brown tones, the sun shining in through the open door. Both mares were…