Survival.
"A horse on a photo shoot in California
was frightened by the sound of surf,
so he ran straight into the ocean.
He ran two miles on a road that didn't exist,
and for an afternoon, he was holy.
A god small enough to face the surface of the world,
to pit lung and innocence and muscle
against its terrible curve.
In the hands of his rescuers, the horse was still swimming.
The ocean looked like something gentle.
He threw his head up, breathing, and the men laughed and called
for a counterweight.
His front legs started up again, two miles out to sea, so
much death and space, a sunset ahead of them
all, and they got the harness on."