Living in the Gap

This morning was the first morning I have seen the moon in a while. It has been cloudy here. I feed the horses around 5:30, 2 hours before dawn. The full moon was so bright, and so low, it acted more like a spotlight, blinding me. I stepped slowly so I wouldn’t run into a horse, which has happened during the new moon phase. I’m used to bright lights in the dark, but usually they are headlights of cars racing by on the road. My horses are in two pastures across the road from the house where I am staying.

I hump hay over the barbed wire. I’ve torn my gloves and flannel-lined jeans from 30 days of hopping the barbed wire fences in the dark to get off the road and get in with the horses. I break the hay bales open like loaves of bread. The horses crowd…