Jockeys, a Perspective

Why is it

that when walking over the Downs

on a bright winter’s morning

and you see horses cantering in a fluid line across the far horizon,

the jockeys look so tiny

you feel you could stretch out your hand,

pick them up one by one

and place them gently upon the bare branches

of that silhouetted oak?

(Or, if it weren’t so dangerous, dot them along the power

And yet only an hour or so later

when they dismount and lead the horses past you

on their way to the stable yard,

they still look small?

Even smaller in some cases?