Jared Jimenez Maxilom
Aubade with Urban Stallions
Be it: steady sweat in a cheap saddle or the mist
snagging threads of horse mane splayed like a decision
splitting the twilight orange. The taste of salt
in the air, hissing off fresh Fanta, and stable dirt.
The rushing overture of horseshoes, friction
in wet concrete—iron in the itch. Firm
echoes, tuned cavalry—A grating noise to the teeth,
behooving the jaw of another Trojan city, asleep,
waking it in chatters. Be it fluorescent, haloes static
in strings of morning-touched hair. The seasons are
racing for a pin turn, how heartbeats accelerate to rest.
The drum and pluck of fast urban stallions spill
headlights on our pupils like two suns at dawn—
One in the sky, one in the wine-run sea—learning to be sunrise.
Jared Jimenez Maxilom (he/they) Born in Olongapo City, Philippines, is a Filipino poet based in Sharjah. His poems have been read or appeared in Poetic Heart, DFA Philippines, Postscript, NO NIIN, The Borderline, and The Kingfisher Magazine among many others. His work is inspired by the narratives of real and imagined lives within the migrant experience.
Return to March 2024 Edition
Be it: steady sweat in a cheap saddle or the mist
snagging threads of horse mane splayed like a decision
splitting the twilight orange. The taste of salt
in the air, hissing off fresh Fanta, and stable dirt.
The rushing overture of horseshoes, friction
in wet concrete—iron in the itch. Firm
echoes, tuned cavalry—A grating noise to the teeth,
behooving the jaw of another Trojan city, asleep,
waking it in chatters. Be it fluorescent, haloes static
in strings of morning-touched hair. The seasons are
racing for a pin turn, how heartbeats accelerate to rest.
The drum and pluck of fast urban stallions spill
headlights on our pupils like two suns at dawn—
One in the sky, one in the wine-run sea—learning to be sunrise.
Jared Jimenez Maxilom (he/they) Born in Olongapo City, Philippines, is a Filipino poet based in Sharjah. His poems have been read or appeared in Poetic Heart, DFA Philippines, Postscript, NO NIIN, The Borderline, and The Kingfisher Magazine among many others. His work is inspired by the narratives of real and imagined lives within the migrant experience.
Return to March 2024 Edition