The Mare

Horse Frightened by Lightning (1825) by Eugene Delacroix

The Sun, with the light of dawn,

Sung to life a mare in yawn.

As a hide alit with two flies,

The desert land shivered and stirred

Under the zeal of her two peoples,

Beneath the wars they spurred.

And every drop of blood

Beaded her brawny back 

‘Til the holy land was flood

With the tears of her prophets.

Upward rose the Sun hallowed,

Upward Zion the mare followed.

In the fevered heat of noon

The men built their two temples

While the women on either dune

Spoke softly their prayers.

Now the cool of evening

Is balm to her many scars.

The flies prepare for flight,

To dust or to the stars.

Soon the Sun will set on His lovely mare

That she may wake in Heaven’s care.