Barn, ducks, cow…
objects make us
make sense.

A painting of horses
that are part
of a war.

The war is subtle
but the horses
are not—

the idea of things
now lives
in the sounds

things make.
We don’t hear
the horses

but we do.
The war
is silent

as flesh
because the past
doesn’t know

how. The boy’s war
makes a sound
we imitate

by accident.