Some comparison –

There is sweat on the skin of the animals, as there is on the humans hundreds/thousands of miles away – perhaps there is tears in the horses eyes as there are in the humans?

Unlikely, but perhaps –

And if one could surround and protect the other, would they?

A drum beat –

Two locations/polar opposites – the first aspect, Holland, is one submerged with sudden floodwaters; one hundred horses stranded in fields hidden now beneath grey waters and beneath that other dangers e.g. lost topography, fake footholds, barbed wire fences – (not so dissimilar to the other place then) –

And the second?

Gaza. The polar opposite, as mentioned – hot sand, concrete and rock, parched beneath the daily sun and beneath the weight of world observers watching and waiting for – well, what exactly, no one knows anymore despite their profession to do so, their ‘roadmaps’ which have ironically led to a deeper loss of direction – blindness –

Guns peal – sheltered boys with automatic rifles at the checkpoint, nothing but puffs of smoke emanating from barrels, illusions with real consequence – the women are lining the streets, dressed in black and white (mirroring the horse pelts) - and their collective presence is so similar to the stranded, streaming beasts in Holland, pressed onto a narrow spit of land aware of the danger around them getting closer and closer –

The unarmed women scream in off-beat time with the pop-pop gunfire behind them – two fall on the pavement there in the glut of movement, the welter of fear -

The horses wait, silent for a day, their spirits will be offered up if necessary - what else can they do?

Finally, unexpected, they are shown the way across the peril and the multitude of them peal away from their isolation, rolling out into the water side by side, flank brushing flank, where it is shallow and their collective step and colour merge until they break free/apart on safe ground and their collaboration is at an end – some buck and canter at that moment, shaking off the silver – gathering sense once more – ageless for a moment -

Hair, breeze, quarter; blood, penetration, shame –

Both Sundays –

Some comparison.