“To Ride the Puca” by Beth Cato

when he wakes he feels as if

flesh lingers

below the stub of his knee

ever-present as the whiskey sour

of his breath

when he hobbles from the cabin each afternoon

the puca greets him with a whicker

the sly equine spirit with an open offer

to ride away, away, away

to fairylands and far-beyonds

“I get that in a bottle”

he tells the fae beast

even as he admires the horse’s lines

he remembers

before the war, before Shiloh

the joy of throwing himself astride

to gallop and bound through Lowcountry lanes

the tracks around genteel mansions

silks, flowers, the buzz of victory fiercer

than any burn from liquor

the puca grants him the same assessment

patience in ancient eyes

black as a rifle’s barrel

the man wonders if in those distant fairy lands

he’d find a leg again

or if that would truly matter

once he was on horseback again

once he rediscovered that glorious rhythm

of unfurled muscles and long strides

that maybe it’s not one leg he misses

but four

Beth Cato is the author of The Clockwork Dagger steampunk fantasy series from Harper Voyager. She’s a Hanford, California, native transplanted to the Arizona desert, where he lives with her husband, son, and requisitie cat. Follow her at BethCato.com

and on Twitter at @BethCato

.

Published in Kaleidotrope, Winter 2016 | www.kaleidotrope.net