By Angela Ball

Where we set foot
matters, is status
and purchase.

If on red,
you may be important;
on purple, royal. Stepping

out, stepping in;
stealing someone’s place
in a coffee line, pharmacy,

or marriage; watching a horseshow
without realizing that the horses’
high-stepping energy

comes from lead weights
added to their iron shoes. The riders
form a line. Slowly, the judge walks

horse to horse, checking
conformation, feeling
his trick knee, thinking of the arrogant

Nazis of his youth, whose goosesteps said
We will stamp you out forever,
vermin Jews.

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Angela Ball was born in Athens, Ohio. Her sixth and most recent book of poems is Talking Pillow. She teaches in the Center for Writers at The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, where she lives with her two dogs, Miss Bishop and Boy.