Scruffy little five inch plastic horse
He didn’t much like it in the store
But only $1.99 & it might fit in his toy pickup…
At home among shiny race cars and red siren fire trucks
Suddenly he starts talking to the horse
When the boy says “talk to me, horse!”
I can’t help whinnying “About wha-a-a-a-at?”
What ensues is a 20 minute dialogue
Between horse and 4 yr old boy
Between plastic & imagination
Between son & father
This horse has some pretty mean stories
Stupid yelling, doors slammed, faces slapped
This boy got one raw deal
But tonight, he will brush his horse’s teeth after his own
Take it to bed, lay its head carefully on his pillow,
Turn away from me to say “I love you horse…”
And be full asleep before the horse
Can think of anything to say.

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Bruce Isaacson became known for poetry at the Cafe Babar reading, an infamous free-for-all that ran from 1986 to 1992 in San Francisco. He’s also known as a Slam Finalist in the inaugural season of the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City. He featured at Poetry In Motion’s Helena’s-Largo-Tang’s readings which included poetry readings by well-known Hollywood figures. He earned degrees at Claremont McKenna College, Dartmouth College and Brooklyn College, where he wrote a thesis for noted American poet Allen Ginsberg. He is publisher of Zeitgeist Press which has produced over 100 titles including books by Lambda Award winner Jan Steckel, beat legends Jack Micheline and Andy Clausen, as well as Babarian poets such as David Lerner and Julia Vinograd. Bruce was appointed to a two-year term as the first Poet Laureate of Clark County, Nevada in June 2015.

“Horse” by Bruce Isaacson was previously published in Ghosts Among the Neon (Zeitgeist Press) in 2005.