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Click here for a review by Erica Goss at Sticks & Stones

Click here for a review by Jacob Butlett at Harbor Review

 

 

Horse Not Zebra is available from independent bookstores (such as Malaprop's

 in Asheville, NC), or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or from Terrapin Books.

 

 Links:

 

https://www.malaprops.com/search/site/Eric%20Nelson%20Horse%20Not%20Zebra

 

https://amzn.to/3sQeUxD

 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/horse-not-zebra-eric-nelson/

1141059090?ean=9781947896543

 

https://www.terrapinbooks.com/store/p48/horse.html

 The stunning cover features the painting "Shake the yellow leaves

 from the bough of your heart" (a line from Rumi) by

 Laura Berendsen Hughes, cover design by Diane Lockward

 of Terrapin Books.

 And here is the title poem: 

 

  Horse Not Zebra

  When med students are learning

  how to diagnose symptoms, they’re told

  think horse, not zebra—the common, not the exotic.

  Which is good advice even if you’re not a doctor. 

  Like when your phone rings at 3:00 in the morning,

  think wrong number, not who died?

  Or if your love is over an hour late

  for dinner and hasn’t called to explain, think

  gridlock, not head-on; dead zone, not dead.

  When the guy in the truck doesn’t slow down

  much less stop when you step into the crosswalk,

  think distracted, not son-of-a-bitch. Recall the time

  your mind was still at work, how shocked you were

  to see in your rear-view a woman in the crosswalk

  flipping you off with both hands.

  And if you’re steaming in a mile long back-up

  because protesters have blocked the bridge again,

  don’t think where are the damn cops

  when you need them, think how,

  when popping sounds wake you at night,

  you think firecracker, not gun.

  

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