This week’s poem, Alice Persons’ “New Foal,” offers us a glimpse of new life for the spring holidays. I love this poem’s simplicity, the clarity of the scene it describes, and its final image, bright with new promise.

Persons has published three books of poetry, and eight of her poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac. Since 2003, Persons has been the editor and publisher of Moon Pie Press. She lives in Westbrook.

 

New Foal

By Alice Persons

 

One day old, shiny dark bay,

white star on his forehead,

he totters on long legs,

never strays far from his young mother.

He weighs 100 pounds, she 1000.

This is her first. She watches him every second.

 

Jeff the barn manager goes into the stall

while someone holds the mother with a halter and line

close by. He runs his hands over the foal’s long nose

and neck, gently strokes his legs and feet,

talking in a soothing tone. The foal is frightened

but allows this. Jeff says it’s important

for the newborn to learn early

that people can touch him.

The mother shifts nervously.

 

The few people watching speak in low tones.

Nearby horses are silent. The foal’s eyes gleam.

 

Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “New Foal,” copyright © 2020 by Alice N. Persons, appears by permission of the author.