It has been there for days, wasting away.
Bugs are summoned by the smell of decay.
Furry growth in a moist state,
Flies regurgitate.
Buzz, buzz, buzz all over the Charolais.

Farm hands , securing free access  through pine thicket, with chainsaw , shovel  and swing blade , hand driving steel post into Georgia red clay tempered by unforgiving heat , rolling barbed wire , cowherds in precision running taut lines with come -a-long tool , tractor winch and post hammer , surveying favorable routes and relocation of Angus and Herefored , Brahma and Charolais ...Leather gloves ,cowboy hats , sunglasses , denim jeans and flannels shirts deflect a hellish Sun directly overhead as Summers project moves forward , not for pay , nay , but as a rite of passage , teenagers assuming the role of young men securing the bond of Father and Son , family tradition , and honor , respect and love for the land .....

Mr. Hopsons polished , placid pond surrounded by dark green July corn , teeming with mud and flathead catfish , dairy cattle call on clear blue , bucolic afternoons .. Black tadpoles crowd her tall vegetative shore , hoof prints riddle lonesome trails , killdeer chirp atop Elizabeth rose fence lines , paddocks come alive with abundant , fragrant wildflowers of every shape , color and size ..
Beagles cry for their midday meal , songbirds vivaciously work the white barn homestead , Rhode Island Reds gather for Noon feast , Embden Geese patrol East seeking the blacktop , waddle noisily along the gravel drive , forever curious , even a touch boisterous and foolhardy from time to time ..
Charolais bulls command the molasses lick , working salt blocks , lay
without fear beneath tin topped field shelters ..

The morning fires of Ola have resumed
Leaves are whisked across rested -
pastures and workable fields
The bells of Hereford and Charolais announce the -
sunrise meal
The lick is filled , the trough watered ,
the herd counted , the busy day plotted
Orpingtons pick cracked corn , barley and
grit
The first firing of the tractor , the beagles -
leading the farmers rowdy contraption in -
hopes of a stirred rabbit or a covey of game birds
Ola's country air is thick with new- day diesel ,
fresh harrowed field and wild onion , thickened
with pine an fresh hewn hardwood ...

.               Anonymous Horse


Today I launched the lonely horse club.

On the way to La Haye we stopped the

car and I played une chanson au cheval.


Should we give it a name this chestnut

with a mane partially covering one sad

eye and ears drooped over a long face?


Solitary in a field devoid of trees, not a

makeshift lean-to nor rivulet nor stream

nor an adjacent herd of mooing charolais.


   My serenade was a soliloquy to an

audience of one, a rendition which was

endeavouring to banish abandonment.


Oh, preoccupied blinkered people, as

you progress past gated enclosures,

   pause for a heavy hearted horse.



Ryan. 22 August 2022

Normandy France.

Glacial Discrimination


When I was a wee lad there

existed a chocolate box at

Christmas, it was called

Quality Street, a selection.


Instead of having a leafy

  tree lined urban classic

     scene on the cover,

it could have had a terrace

of a coal mining community

known as Quantity Street.


But no, because inferority

  lowers the value of any

product it seems and that

not only applies in human

terms, but also to animals.


Today, our first frost I noticed

a horse that had been fitted

with an all weather Winter coat.


Whereas, a herd of Charolais in

the neighbouring field, were not.

.                  Exuberant


I encountered a Charolais on the

  Road, perplexed to be between

  Two high grassed hillocks with

  Inaccessible moats preventing

     Grazing. What an anomaly

     It must have seemed, such

     Profusion, yet out of reach.
    

     Oh for a gate to an empty

    Field a vacant page where

     Writers block hinges open

     Into a luscious vocabulary

       Of rampant abundance.


         A cowabunga eureka

      Verdant moment ensued

        And from her udders a

       Milky Way materialised

      On my blank parchment.





10/11/2022.

Normandy.

.                  Exuberant


I encountered a Charolais on the

  Road, perplexed to be between

  Two high grassed hillocks with

  Inaccessible moats preventing

     Grazing. What an anomaly

     It must have seemed, such

     Profusion, yet out of reach.
    

     Oh for a gate to an empty

    Field a vacant sheet where

     Writers block hinges open

     Into a luscious vocabulary

       Of rampant abundance.


         A cowabunga eureka

      Verdant moment ensued

           And from her **** a

       Milky Way materialised

      On my blank parchment.





10/11/2022.

Normandy.