Engraving

A poem by Amanda Jernigan

Between the whinging devil and the menacing old man,
and through the night that insofar as we know began
before we did, and will, like Borges’s knight, succeed us; 
companioned by the horse and dog, and armoured to the teeth
(the helmet, under which the golden hair is all piled up, 
and breastplate to conceal, here, not her sex so much as her little child):

this is the way the ladies ride, 
this is the way the ladies ride, 
this is the way the ladies ride.

AMANDA JERNIGAN's latest book is All the Daylight Hours (2013). Her work has appeared in Poetry and other magazines.

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