One Day a Girl

-after Miller Williams

by Krista Benjamin

One day a girl picking blackberries in Oregon
heard the whinny of a horse overhead. 
A Thoroughbred ran wildly in mid-air,
the pumping of its legs keeping it afloat. 
The moment it stopped two fields over,
the horse fell and lay whimpering in a heap,
and the girl ran for help,
berries spilling from her dropped basket.

The following November, a Vermont woman
was drying off after a bath when a glint in the tub
caught her eye.  A small trout darted around
as she looked on disbelieving
until it went into a frenzy and flung
itself onto the linoleum floor at her feet.

No one who knew about the horse
heard about the fish, and no one
noticed a pattern when two boys
discovered a beagle curled up
sleeping at the bottom of their pool
in Arizona, apparently
breathing water.