Ben drives me to his town
so that he can show me around
we have lunch at the small sub shop
where he worked in high school
he shows me the barns
where he began to ride
and even the fence where
he cut his head
he takes me to his high school
where we walk around the fields
and we stop by the mall
where Taylor works

and while we sit at a table and
drink sodas
I think about how he grew up
only an hour away
yet if it wasn’t for that horse show
we may never have met
and I wonder if that’s how it works
sometimes
and if this thing that is growing between us
is as real as it feels inside