The past lies in the brine
Of equatorial water,
Parchment-folded,
Black ink veining where the quill paused.

Rich doldrums
Full of gold
Where Spanish sailors
Threw the Queen's horses,
Palomino, the color of her hair.

On the Outer Banks
Each wave a breaking
Promise of the New World,
Lost colonies,
Lost ships, wild ponies
Swimming even now.


About this poem
"This poem existed unfinished for quite a while-in particular, the parts referring to the colonial-era practice of lightening cargo ships becalmed in equatorial waters ("horse latitudes") by unloading livestock overboard. It took a trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and confronting the eerie mysteries of the origin of wild, roaming horses and lost colonies of settlers to finish it."
-Jo Sarzotti

About Jo Sarzotti
Jo Sarzotti is the author of "Mother Desert" (Graywolf Press 2012). She directs the liberal arts department at The Juilliard School and lives in New York City.

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The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2014 Jo Sarzotti. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate