Town-horses
In my youth, horse transport -a one-man job
was still available for shorter journeys, a vanishing business; when the last horse-drawn carriage firm gave up, there was a picture in the newspaper of a man and a horse.
I often wondered what happened to the dear old horses spending a long time outside shops waiting for their flat-beds to be fully loaded
Looking at them was a study of longanimity, but
I don't think horses have a sense of time, just hunger or thirst as day eased towards evening
Since no farmers wanted the elderly horses, they
had tractors imported from America.
My mother said horses were slaughtered in hidden abattoirs since no one cared to admit they were eating horse flesh, made into salami and dog food.
At the local history museum, there are pictures of
the horses that helped transport building materials, making the town into a city, supplying
the housewives with manure for the roses.
How many sands have you counted
building castles near the shoreline,
which the sea washes away
before the day is done?
Alas, you build them again and again
unmindful of the raging waves
and the wild winds
blasting away those paradigms~
before your hands could shape
the towers in your mind;
As if there were no waves~
As if there were no winds.
Every castle you built
scattered in the shifting sands,
yet your dreams perpetuated ~
like the course of the river
resolutely pushing
though drought hinders
its way to reach the sea;
Like the flight of the eagle
endlessly flying
amidst the chancy sky.
Having waited for long after hard laboring,
Tilling, planting, manuring and irrigating;
Keeping stray animals away from grazing them,
Protecting them from dangers, as though, costly gem;
Treating the illnesses of better-half who's weak,
Pleasing the moods of kids, who fun and frolics seek;
Eating sometimes; evading timely food, often,
Pleading the money-lenders their hearts to soften;
Weeding the field frequently when it's so needed,
Cleansing, spraying pesticides when it's thus weeded;
Drizzles, hailstones and storms visit the fields, betwixt,
Tending the fallen plants, he gets the problems fixed;
Thus, midst mounting temptations and tribulations,
When his hopes reach their zenith of expectations;
Floods unforeseen, when whole year's livelihood destroy,
He stands calm, yet, facing forces of pain and joy...!
15 March 2022
He took me fishing.
Meaning,
I cast and fouled
my fishing reel
in rapid succession,
forgetting to thumb break,
creating snarled messes,
rending the whole thing
unusable.
He swapped
his gear for mine,
untangled the abortion
I’d created,
handed me back
an operational rod,
just as I messed up
again.
Rinse.
Repeat.
He never once
scowled or
raised his voice.
When we got back to the house,
Granny asked how fishing went.
Paw-paw smiled,
“Wonderfully.”
----------
for the "Pick-a-Title" Poetry Contest
sponsored by Edward Ibeth
title chosen: 1. Longanimity
written on 03/14/2022
When storm brews in the yonder horizon hazy,
wild winds surge dark cloud across the smoky sky,
sailing steady on the old boat with unsinkable hope,
the ancient mariner in me endures the torment of toil.
When the torrential rain pours from the falling sky,
the deluge descends on the landscape of my life,
my morose mind drowns in the flood of despair,
I face the plight with fortitude and forbearance.
When the frail body suffers in the abyss of disease,
the despondent mind senses the beginning of the end,
I walk patiently the last mile that waits to be traversed,
and envisage the garden pathway I strolled in cheerful days.
When the assigned time reaches the edge of twilight hour,
the darkness of dusk designs the desolation shadows,
I see sparkling stars sprout in night’s moonlit crown,
for the new sunrise of bliss I wait with longanimity.
___________________
March 5, 2022
Title Chosen : Longanimity
Contest : Pick-A-Title, Vol 29
Sponsored by : Edward Ibeh
Splinters
Shards of hard words in my soul
Are piercing in me a big black hole
I'm bleeding out the chemicals
Digging deep through the ground
I've been trying too hard to make a mark
The shore was washed away again
I think I'm losing all my patience now
I've given all my best somehow
But I can't carry on now, Not anymore
The epiphany has struck me
And the longanimity has departed me
I'm no longer a part of this conundrum
No wonder the placebo didn't work
I was aware I was being tricked
Jokes on you I'm done listening
The splinter's hurting
And I'm running out of sanity
Let me rest now
Beyond the time I bethought thy ambiguity
With you I aspire the longanimity
Beyond the prophecy there crests thy conceivability
With you I cognize the viability.
Beyond thy persuasion I bechanced your propinquity
With you I behold the emotionality
Beyond the state of elated bliss there prehends thy fidelity
With you I summon the reality.
Beyond the beauty I got hold of your integrity
With you I propel morality
Beyond the smile there hazes over thy timidity
With you the shyness broke to chastity.
Beyond the journey I conformed to serenity
With you I got word that there exist eternality
Beyond the nature there fragrances a virtuality
With you I revered ideality.
Beyond a relation there dilates a compilation of esoteric affinity
With you I got hold thy spirituality
Beyond the secrecy there exists enshrouded duality
With You, me makes us evermore infallibility.
Blink of an eye,
Buddha –
Achieved a state of perfect enlightenment
But this success carried,
Years of persistent determination
To look beyond the failures.
Blink of an eye,
Sprinter –
Upshots a sensational Victory
But this winning carried,
Months of sustained spiritedness
To look beyond the loneliness.
Blink of an eye,
Carnivorous plant –
Digests the insects with complete gratification
But this consummation carried,
Days of longanimity and diligence
To look beyond the mundaneness.
Blink of an eye,
Bird of Jove –
Hunts its prey with absolute precision
But this attainment carried,
Hours of penetrating observance
To look beyond the distractions.
Flavored by ardent emotions
Today you brought back my days foregone
Lost in the woods and darkness buoys up
The moonlit night appears to be adjourned.
This cosmic time appears to disappear
By the weakening of the dawn
But your soothed nature brought around
A splendid aurora recalling my ladylove, love numb.
Once again I reveled by your blondness
Couple of years later your smile adorned my charmingness
Lost in the woods and lasted out against casting off
Today I will pen you and lust you in my dreams ached for.
This cosmic time appears to disappear
By memories trivial
But the time now appears to be relished and becharmed
An angelic charm and my longanimity for love, thirst arrival.
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