Leviathan

Laura Da

In Westport the small French cart

of the voyageurs earned the name mule-killer.

Once Shawnee was the lingua franca

up and down the Mississippi,

then mollassi became molasses.

For the bringing of the horse

it is said much can be forgiven: burn

of Missouri whiskey and aching molars,

lunatic fevers of cholera,

even those men

born astride. Rare beast to share

that weight on such fine and slender legs.