Dru Philippou

Under Redondo Peak

a stream
meandering in the valley
the scent
of white blossoms
adrift in secret places

They never could catch the mare and her foal when the federal government removed domestic animals from the Valles Caldera. That was twenty-one years ago during the creation of a national wildlife preserve. I’ve never seen either horse, but I think of the younger one as the duchess, after the nearby “Duke Trail,” named for John Wayne. Her mother hasn’t been sighted for a couple of years, and the duchess roams her favorite meadow alone, centuries of freedom in her bones. Recently, someone spotted a bear with cubs—and a dark chestnut mare whose color shades to black. 

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About the Author

Dru Philippou was born on the island of Cyprus, raised in London, and currently lives in northern New Mexico, where hiking in the high desert wilderness nourishes both her spirit and her writing. Her haibun “Afterlife” won first place in the Haiku Society of America’s 2021 Haibun Awards competition. She is the author of A Place to Land, a memoir in tanka prose.