The poem begins with a description of two Indian ponies in a pasture "just off the highway," suggesting that a car has pulled off the road. The ponies "welcome" two people ("my friend and me") who step over the fence into the pasture. In the rest of the poem, the speaker describes the ponies' interactions with each other and with their human visitors.
From the speaker's perspective, the ponies display emotions of happiness, shyness, loneliness, and love. One of the ponies, a slender black-and-white mare, nuzzles the speaker's hand, allowing the human to "caress" her ear. In the last three lines of the poem, the speaker experiences a sudden revelation, expressed through a mysterious image: "Suddenly I realize / That if I stepped out of my body I would break / Into blossom."