About a Horse, Dear Reader, About a Horse (Ars Poetica)
My uncle put the saddle on the horse. Its jaws were constrained by a reign. I rejoiced at having control over our path. I could make the horse change direction with merely a pull or a tug. As I sat on the saddle, my sombrero projected a shadow on my shirt of the Dallas Cowboys. I smacked the horse and it began to move. I tugged at the reign to no avail. The horse went under a tree, the branches slashed at my arms. I got off the horse and checked for wounds. My Dallas shirt was torn.
Gustavo Barahona-López is a writer and educator from Richmond, California. In his writing, Barahona-López draws from his experience growing up as the son of Mexican immigrants. His micro-chapbook ‘Where Will the Children Play?’ was part of the Ghost City Press 2020 Summer Series. A member of the Writer’s Grotto and a VONA alum, Barahona-López’s work can be found or is forthcoming in Iron Horse Literary Review, Puerto del Sol, The Acentos Review, Apogee Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, among other publications.
