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Sunday, June 26, 2022

Speaking of Horses

 


My sister has always had horses:  a brown Arabian
with a black mane, who gave her a foal she loved
and lost too soon. One marks the moment
a heart breaks:
there was a before, of perfect happiness, then
an after, when there was nothing to be done
but keep moving forward
in grief.
He flew through our lives like a comet,
blazing out. I have a memory of his tall ears 
as he poked his head up over the top
of his stall in the morning, how he loved
playing with his ball. His Arabian mom
lived long; she was a grand old dame,
wise, with definite opinions made clear
in her facial expressions: appalled, disbelieving,
when the new red filly arrived on the scene.
How she put her body between two bickering
younger horses, and gave a great bellow.
"Enough!" she roared,
and they never bickered again.

The red filly also died tragically young:
laminitis, which seizes the legs till a horse
can no longer walk, my sister and her husband
sobbing as they buried her,
so beautiful, so young,
in the pasture.

Speaking of horses: their sweetness, their
deep-seeing eyes, their soft, seeking noses,
nibbling at your pockets and fingers
 looking for cookies,
the privilege of their trust  -
no one tells you how many times your heart 
will break, as they come in and out
of our lives.

For my sister, who has always had horses, and whose heart is large enough to withstand the heartbreak and give them the very best possible lives while they are with her.


3 comments:

  1. Beautiful creatures.. must be marvellous to raise and ride them...

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  2. Your sister is lucky to have lived and to live with horses. And they with her. Such beautiful animals, and I can imagine the heartbreak when one of them dies...but meanwhile, such joy.

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  3. that's a strong heart beat that runs in your family, Sherry ~

    ReplyDelete

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