...quiet, about a lot of things...
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Schooled...for Totally Optional Prompts
This was a hard prompt for me today. Horses mean so much to me. I have zillions of poems in me about our connection..Though I haven't seen them in a week. In midst of a lovers spat.
I decided the prompt called for a tone that should be about a moment of horse..not me..and couldn't come up with anything. This was as close as I could get.
Schooled
I.
It's good that the man underneath the cowboy hat knows me. He has stitched and healed my most precious flesh.Maybe it's because he has watched me hold his needle,and study his hands as he sews.Perhaps that's why he trusts me, respects the curiosity, when I ask if I can watch. He nods and stands me just out of danger, yet close. To feel the steam. To catch the scent.
Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure I know all about this.
SCHOOLED
The mare is copper red
sleek with sweat,cloaked
by steam rising hot.
Never have I seen her
so focused, intent.
She quivers as she tests
her hooves, prancing slowly,
like a runner before the gun.
The stallion is
unrecognizable to me.
Bigger than his flesh,
drunk in his power.
Head high in flight to her.
He would have her with
a tiger on his back.
He will have her, with
ten tigers.
There is no love.
She does not go quietly.
He does not woo or ask permission.
He only pauses to avoid
her kick. Then, in a fierceness
that makes me swoon,
she is his.
The weight of him anchoring
her, while he still has the strength.
His teeth in her mane. Blood slowly
down her neck. Heads bent
in parallel lines, in tandem,
eye to ear, to almost eye.
No bridle, no bit.
It is over when it's over.
No apologies, like men or dogs.
He loses balance,spent.
Still with sense enough to
put distance between them.
There will be no leaning
on her now. Her last
buck catches only the air
where he had been.
But, he is quick and gone.
He backs unsteady. Steps away,
still huge, in no certain rhythm.
She shakes her mane and plants her feet.
One. two. three. four.
wlf 10:38
There are different ways of doing this..deed... but that is a whole other story.
Be sure to join the rest of the herd over at Totally Optional Prompts.
I decided the prompt called for a tone that should be about a moment of horse..not me..and couldn't come up with anything. This was as close as I could get.
Schooled
I.
It's good that the man underneath the cowboy hat knows me. He has stitched and healed my most precious flesh.Maybe it's because he has watched me hold his needle,and study his hands as he sews.Perhaps that's why he trusts me, respects the curiosity, when I ask if I can watch. He nods and stands me just out of danger, yet close. To feel the steam. To catch the scent.
Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure I know all about this.
SCHOOLED
The mare is copper red
sleek with sweat,cloaked
by steam rising hot.
Never have I seen her
so focused, intent.
She quivers as she tests
her hooves, prancing slowly,
like a runner before the gun.
The stallion is
unrecognizable to me.
Bigger than his flesh,
drunk in his power.
Head high in flight to her.
He would have her with
a tiger on his back.
He will have her, with
ten tigers.
There is no love.
She does not go quietly.
He does not woo or ask permission.
He only pauses to avoid
her kick. Then, in a fierceness
that makes me swoon,
she is his.
The weight of him anchoring
her, while he still has the strength.
His teeth in her mane. Blood slowly
down her neck. Heads bent
in parallel lines, in tandem,
eye to ear, to almost eye.
No bridle, no bit.
It is over when it's over.
No apologies, like men or dogs.
He loses balance,spent.
Still with sense enough to
put distance between them.
There will be no leaning
on her now. Her last
buck catches only the air
where he had been.
But, he is quick and gone.
He backs unsteady. Steps away,
still huge, in no certain rhythm.
She shakes her mane and plants her feet.
One. two. three. four.
wlf 10:38
There are different ways of doing this..deed... but that is a whole other story.
Be sure to join the rest of the herd over at Totally Optional Prompts.
12 Comments:
Intense! Just like that: "Quiet about ...things
Geez, this is a great poem....
...what OTHER ways?
This is a wonderful piece of writing. I was as interested in the relationship between the narrator and the cowboy as between the two horses. Much left unsaid.
A surprise...layer by layer. Visually precise.
a hint...vets around her..wear cowboy hats.
Nice. There is something disorienting about the narrator's positioning, but I think it contributes nicely to the sense of urgency and intoxication.
Magnificent moment. What detailed description!
Superb description, this is great poetry!
This captures to great effect the elemental sense of the horse & its defiance of the human's attempt to (grimmest of words) break it. Wed are, of course, entirely with the horse here.
You create quite a scene.
Favorite line:
"there will be no leaning on her now"
Really captures the charged energy of the moment.
"The mare is dangerous - lethal really."
"He would have her with a tiger on his back."
"There will be no leaning on her now."
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