A saddled horse does not make a good horse.
A saddled horse does not make a clean horse.
A saddled horse does not make a tense horse.
A saddled horse does not make a broke horse.
A saddled horse does not make a show horse.
A saddled horse does not make a work horse.
A saddled horse does not make a town horse.
A saddled horse does not make a gift horse.
A saddled horse does not make a dead horse.
A saddled horse does not make a horse.
Overhead, rain in a late-July heat.
Tyler Michael Jacobs is the author of The Weight of Drought (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2025) and Building Brownville (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2022). His words have appeared or are forthcoming in Quarterly West, Grist, Phoebe, Passages North, Variant Literature, Plainsongs, and elsewhere. His poems have also been featured on Nebraska Public Media’s Friday LIVE. He received his MFA from Bowling Green State University.