BREAKING MAN

 by Brionne Janae 

you ever seen a man
break a mare between his legs
wild one, kind bucks
just at the stench
of a man, back buckled
haunches twitching like jelly roll
legs splayed

he’d run her ragged
round the bull pen
no rest or water, just
her shoulder cracking the curved wood
whip’s snap chasing behind her
naked hooves kicking up dust
a dry scream drug up from her throat

this after he’d forced
the bridle between her teeth
her knees in the dirt, body
arched like a hissing cat
no, no more of this
you’ll never find a man less gentle

and after he’d driven the spirit
from her bones
he’d rein her closer
closer with each trip round
till she could only still
then he’d lay his hands on her
panting, and speak softly

once I loved a man
like a mare does the breaking hand
kind liked to clap yellow gals cross the face
just to watch they skin turn
and I took him between my legs
thinking to make him mine
till he left me broken and ragged
stripped of the call to run free

​

​

photo by Lyn Phillips

Brionne Janae is a California native, teaching artist, and poet who has left Boston where she completed an MFA at Emerson College. Brionne could be anywhere this time next year—Seattle, Jupiter, NYC. A recipient of the 2016 St. Botoloph Emerging Artist award, Brionne is also a proud Cave Canem Fellow. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review, jubilat, Sixth Finch, Plume, Bayou Magazine, The Nashville Review, and Waxwing, among others. Brionne’s first manuscript After Jubilee will be published by Boaat Press in the Winter of 2017.