Western Style

I imagined the horse bolting so it did,
skidded along the canyon’s edge while I watched.

Later you told me that was rubbernecking
which seemed so American, something Brits would never do

although I had, waves of breath turned solid
between cactus taproot anchors

till you regained control — or maybe the bronco
found something more gripping than a tourist’s weight,

slowed for the sake of sunshine or snake.
In the car park, we washed hands in a trough.

Women sold turquoise from white-hot stalls
& you told me not to stare but one winked,

another held my gaze. I bought a necklace: silver horse
bucking, blue saddle lifted.

Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell was awarded the Northern Writers’ Debut Award for Poetry and a place on the Out-Spoken Press Emerging Poets Development Scheme in 2022. Her pamphlet, ‘Breaking (Out)’ was published by Selcouth Station Press, and ‘Unknown’ by Stairwell Press. She has featured in journals including Fourteen Poems, New Welsh Review, Shearsman Magazine, Spelt Magazine, Strix, The Interpreter’s House, Tears in the Fence, The Alchemy Spoon, Ink Sweat and Tears and Impossible Archetype, has longlisted for the Leeds Poetry Prize and Mslexia Women’s Poetry Competition, and shortlisted for the Ironbridge Festival Prize.