nthposition online magazine

The horse

by Laurence O'Dwyer

[ poetry - october 06 ]

Neither flags nor armies accompany victory.
True victory is the absence of defeat.
Where the word defeat is archaic, defunct;
victory then follows it into oblivion
and the surest sign of its presence
is its absence. Such a state is equine;
like a horse in full gallop,
with all four feet off the ground.