Horses

I think this is the last poem from "The Piano" I'm going to post here (for a little while at least). This is the last poem in the collection. It also saw it's humble beginnings here at Writer's Cafe.

I fell off a horse
when I was eight years old,
riding through the lush green
rolling hills of Mentone
on the back of a mare
named Misty.

I never rode a horse again.

Now every time
I drive by a stable,
I become filled
with an indescribable longing -

for wind on my skin,
for sun on my face.

On the back of a Palomino -

into the untamed hillside
of some foreign landscape,
I’d like to ride
to where the mothers
of my fathers
worshiped now forgotten gods.

I'd ride my Palomino hard -

through Ireland
and Old Germania
like a poet,
like a Pagan
lost in time.

I fell off a horse
when I was eight years old;
chipped my tooth,
cracked my skull,
on the hard ground
beneath me.

I never rode a horse again.

I recently took a trip to Pensacola.

I told my friends
I just couldn't stay,
stay in this
God-forsaken place -

this town
that surrounds,
compounds,
and drowns me
in its urban uselessness -
so suffocating.

Sometimes I need to flee,
find space in which to breathe
 
and stare blankly
into the distance.

Where for miles
nothing lay in front of me,
except Cuba,
which is nothing more
than an idea
on a purple horizon.

Feeling the hot sand between my toes,
I turn in time to spot a man on horseback
riding through a tide pool, and I envy him -

His golden stallion
crashing through
the foam
capped
waves.

I fell off a horse
when I was eight years old,
riding through the lush green
rolling hills of Mentone
on the back of a mare
named Misty.

I never rode a horse again.

I wish I'd been brave enough
 
to get
back on
a horse . . .

again.

Reviews

[Tommy]

I like this piece, it is a revelation for one not to give up on their dreams. Very descriptive with vivid imagery; I was taken to these places described by your words, which enabled my mind's eye to paint this picture very clearly. Great work!
RLG,
Tommy

[Bette]

i like this "His golden stallion crashing through
the foam capped waves."

[Angelheaded Hipster]

Adam, you need to get back on the horse. Really. Ive fallen off horses, and it hurt, Ive been kicked by a horse,and that hurt like a pain Ive never felt before..but I got back on the horse,and there is a sense of freedom when you have the horse at full run. Its like everything goes away, and its just you, the horse,and the ground at its feet.
And you know..I need this book. Everything Ive read, ever read is simply breathtaking. I envy your pen.

[HorrorMaster]

Very nice

[Deaths Cold Kiss]

love the description