Em Gray is a neurodivergent poet from Brighton and this haptic, ticklish poem was commended in the Forward Prize this year. Simple as it is, it reads with such inner balance and intensely 'felt' images - " a moment's velvet" or "placing/chandeliers" - that I really love it.
I've seen a horse
take the soft folds of a dog's scruff
between her corn kernel teeth.
He, quite forgetting the bones of himself,
dangled some seconds
before being lowered down.
The care of that horse
as if she were practised in placing
chandeliers, or weighing sacks of truffles
with her mouth
and how the dog paused
as if to reassure the horse
of no awkwardness between them
after that solemn transaction of theirs
in which (I like to think)
no liberties were taken
save a horse who wished
a moment's velvet on her grassy tongue,
an old dog's wish to float.