He Painted Horses, by Babo Kamel

Horses, by Norman Leibovitch (Canada) 1960-1970

He Painted Horses

misty blue backsides, necks nuzzled
manes like silk on fire.  Under a sky
 
leaking light, a mare grazes on shadows
as if chewing on something beyond our ken
 
Or the ones so translucent, they look painted
with rosewater, reflecting back the idea
 
of each other against a night
thick with brushstroke, opaque 
 
as the shrouded heart of the painter
who was my father, who left me 
 
the gift of silence in a darkened room
the unpainted and the unwritten
 
waving from the bridge between us 
and now it is to this silence I return
 
when the world is breaking
and I need his voice like prayer.

Babo Kamel

Originally from Montreal, Babo Kamel’s work is published in reviews such as Whale Road Review, Greensboro Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, CV2, Poet Lore, and Best Canadian Poetry 2020.  She is a Best of Net nominee, and a six-time Pushcart nominee, Her chapbook, After, is published with Finishing Line Press. Find her at: babokamel.com