How Grivas of the Blue Horse Gave Way

by Holly Karapetkova

Once when the king came looking
I called him a bastard, spat
in the dirt, strapped my weapons on
and rode my blue horse.
My hair was as black as a curse.

But the autumn came
the leaves turned bitter
and the soil laid out its poison.

Now my hair is gray.
The king will find me at home
confessing my sins to the priest:
thirty years a rebel, twenty a thief.
All I ask is a coffin tall enough to stand
wide enough to load my gun
and on the right side leave a window
so that the swallows will come
driving the spring
driving my blue horse home.


HOLLY KARAPETKOVA is Poet Laureate Emerita of Arlington, Virginia, and recipient of a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship for her work with young poets. Her third book of poems, Dear Empire won of the 2025 William Meredith Prize and the Barry Spacks Poetry Prize and is just out from Gunpowder Press.

Website: www.karapetkova.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/holly.karapetkova/