One Theory of Loss

accounts for horses on the moon. Droves
of lunar shires gallop across the dusty surface:

equine, opaline, sibylline. Two-thousand pounds
weightless, theoretical without atmosphere.

The mane at the crest of each horse’s neck
reveals how we’re taught to hold tightly

to each others’ bodies. We don’t know
how we could ever let go. To understand

this theory of loss, we must train ourselves
to think like astrophysicists, to recognize

the greatest disproved improbability here:
this species learned to breathe without air.