Stories from my little corner of the world, the South. Some are from the present, some from the past...but all are from my heart.

They reflect my thoughts and views, my musing about the world, and each carries with it a bit of my heart
and soul.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Ignored by Horses



As I turn the wheel
the car faces eastward.
I search for them,
but drenching sunlight
showers the windshield.
In an awkward attempt
to deflect sudden blindness,
I jerk the visor down.
Squinting, my vision is reclaimed,
and like a reflex,
I scan right to the meadow.
They are there.
Mist billows from the earth
like breath exhaled on a winter’s day.
The horses, immense and silent,
are ships gliding through the fog.

Edging closer,
they press the railings of their boundary.
Snorted vapor,
purged from huge nostrils,
curls and eddies upwards.
Thick tails of coarse hair
instinctively switch at flies not yet present.



I slow the car and watch them.
They stare, luminous eyes of liquid brown
observing, but ignoring my passage.
Instead, they gaze longingly
just beyond the fence’s edge
at a long row of coiled weathered haystacks
as if they were cinnamon buns
in a bakery window.

And so we begin
another misty morning
that will clear and harden
with the sun’s rising.

Me, toiling at my chosen labor,
they, nobly rambling the meadows
well aware of their regal grandeur,
and affording passerbys a glance
with haughty disregard.

Rose Steedley Williams
©Southernstoryteller
~1998
Back in 1998 I worked as a nanny for a wealthy couple who lived out in the country. Every morning, on my way to work, I would ride past a field with beautiful horses who seemed to be oblivious to me...yet, I was mesmerized by them.


 I finally wrote this poem about them...but unfortunately never got around to taking their photos. These photos are from a ride in the country not to long ago, so there is no misty fog as the poem says, and...not the same horses, but they will do :)

2 comments:

  1. Someone is getting their groove back

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  2. Thanks, I like to think I'm getting back to it :) This is actually an old poem though, something I wrote back in 1998. It's funny how inspiration just slaps me in the face sometimes. Tonia and Debbie from Gather both really liked this one, being the horse women they are :)

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