Wood Horse

Lunar New Year fell on Feb 15. Anyone born before that date belongs to the previous year (Snake).

Horses need to be moving, even if it is just a different route home. The phrase let us wait sits badly with them, so they would rather start running and correct the direction later. Enthusiasm arrives fast, three things get lit at once, and something shiny can pull them off course halfway. They come across as open, brisk, unable to sit still. The fear underneath is not exhaustion but enclosure: a room without an exit rattles them more than a long day on the road. Ask them to describe next year and you get a shrug and a list of places.

Ren is water that keeps moving, Wu the horse that runs with wind in its mane. Willow grows at the water's edge and droops faster under heat. People like this are fed by their surroundings: in the right place they shoot up, in the wrong one they wilt just as quickly. They cannot sit still, and a change of scene wakes them. Their roots are shallow, though, so when wind comes someone has to press the soil down. They change places faster than plans, keeping a bag packed by the door.