Poem by Patricia Dubrava
Horses over Hills
“The days run away like wild horses over the hills,” he says, quoting Bukowski. She doesn’t know that, though, and replies, “They run until they forget they are horses.” What the hell? He turns to look at her. She’s staring dreamily at the bronze figures, life-size, in full gallop, cascading from their marble pedestal. He turns back to the romantic mustangs, irritated. “Ever read Buk?” he asks abruptly. “What?” she says, finally tearing her eyes away from the monument. “Never mind,” he snaps. “I was talking about time, how little we have left. You’re leaving, aren’t you? I was speaking metaphorically.” “Oh,” she says, turning back to the snorting heads frozen in the act, the lifted hooves that will never reach ground. “So was I.”
Art Information
- "In Her Terrible Twenties" © Audrey Jackson; used by permission.
Patricia Dubrava has two books of poems and one of translated stories. In 2017, her translations from Spanish appeared in Mexico City Lit and Catamaran, and one was a finalist for Lunch Ticket’s 2017 Gabo Prize. Recently, one of her poems appeared in Colorado Independent and her translations were published in Hawai’i Review and Asymptote. Her essays have appeared in Talking Writing twice before.
Dubrava teaches writing and literary translation at the University of Denver’s University College graduate program. For her blog, Holding the Light (150 essays and counting), she posts two 800-word essays a month.
Photo credit: Ella Dascalos.
