Early Edit 0.01 Ellz, river

[tectak]

Hi river,
thanks for all of this...as you know, I eat all  crit and there is, on occasion, something to digest. As here.
First, the disclaimers. "glinty" IS a word. You can check. I did before I used it in 1972. A "dray" IS a horse, as well as a cart, a gelding or a mare. You can check..I did before I used the word in 1990.The "mares of night" is a pointlessly gratuitous play on "nightmares"...as is the "dead" of night against "dead of night" cliche.
The flea. Birds have fleas. Jays "ant" to remove them, swallows carry out a little rapid shimmy/shake in flight. Larger birds "twitch" when pricked (bitten) in flight and whilst on the ground. All observed behaviour. Crows are particularly aware of sights and sounds such that any sharp disturbance will set them in to the air, or, if already flying, will cause them to suddenly veer from their path. You only need to clap your hands or thrust a hand skyward to observe this reflexive "twitch". The effect is as if bitten or "pricked" by an on-board flea.
I am concerned over your equine anatomical limitations Horses plume from both ends and poetically one would hope that it not necessary to indicate breath pluming with effort. Frankly, I have never observed a pluming fart but if you say so
The rest, as they say, will be history, as I incorporate. The meter is of less concern with this piece of chopped up prose but I will try to clean up my act.
Many thanks for your well considered comments.
Best,
tectak

Technically -- and by technically, I guess I meant "as a grammar nazi (or spell-check program)". Anyway, I checked "dray", and, at least from what I checked (wikipedia, online merriam-webster's, free-dictionary), dray really does just refer to the cart; for it to refer to the horse, it has to be "dray horse" -- and at that point of the poem, with the current wording, the imagery could go either way. I still recommend changing or clarifying that part.

I suppose I should have caught the play in "mares of night", but with all the animals running about, my mind was set on viewing them as actual mares -- the gratuity there, in this sense, is a bit out-of-place. I definitely should also have caught the "dead of night" note, though, haha.  

I have heard that birds have fleas -- the comment then was on "like the flea has pricked" kind of didn't make sense, as the verb didn't have an object (but you've since changed that, I see). 

Finally, maybe no pluming farts, but pluming sharts, sure. xP 

Ah...technically is it? :
This from wiki.
Dray may refer to: Dray (name); Dray, a type of wagon; A dray horse, also known as a draft horse · Dray Prescot series, science fiction novels; Dray (or drey, the ...
Technically.
Skinned. Bloody right. I was wrong. Thinking frogged....err...fogged. Should be "furred". The "misted" sky stays. I didn't want the meteorologically incorrect "misty" sky. The sky is 50 miles of clear blue air...which has a "misted" appearence when obscured by ...er...mist. Misted mirror if you get my metaphorical drift.
Best,
tectak