When the moon shines on the factory walls
We still see your pain in your quarter stalls
You stumble your way through the grey graveled ground
As your grunts and groans to your masters make no sound

And while the bricks of a future world lay on your back
How long until they collapse on a red linoleum track
You can't see beyond the endless drag of the whips
As the money-coated Pigs command from fat lips

The suffering is infinite inside your cold hardened lung
And everybody knows horses have no message to be sung
And it isn't your fault that you don't know what's true
Because the Dogs have stolen away everything that belonged to you
But one of these days
You must rise and take back the steel-tipped maze
But how could the dumb light in your eyes
Begin to take the Pigs by surprise?

So when do you gallop away from the chain?
So when do you race away in the oil rain?
So when do you open up your heart?
So when do you wake up and revolt and start?
So when do you neigh out your hidden mind?
So when do you free the rest of your kind?
So when do you realize you've worked inside the sun?
So when do you realize this was never any fun?

You can go there.
It’s easy, really.
But once there, you
cannot tell anyone
what it was like.

An experience
must be felt in
order to be believed.
Otherwise it’s just
an idea in my head.

But like a horse
shying at shadows
some of us flee,
cantering away
when our time comes.

The setting sun
sings me to sleep,
the dark morning fog
welcomes a new day.
A new day to try.

And fail.

We cannot see it
without light, yet
the light itself casts
the fearful shadows.
So we hide from it.

What was it like?
You cannot tell me,
once you were there.
It’s easy, really.
Why can’t I do it?
Why can’t I?

Dawn's golden notes stream
across barn's yellow beams
supporting stables hemming horses
cavorting cows sagging udders
melding with yellow hay
bouncing glistening pitchforks prongs
as the song begins.

Dust, glittering as if a nebula, each speck of it freed of
ground, twittering around like birds wading sound.
Spread out, as if a picture, dots of bright ethereal
in their luminescence lightened blinking out
as if frightened, but then heaving about
in the barn's barren air circulating redoubt,
sparkle yet again,
and again,
until they are drowned dark black out
by the opening of a barn door.

Little of moment's loves
Transform our precious
Frail pleasures
Into eternal loves
Unless there is a decision
to greet the old and mundane as
new,
as if dust were stars.

She's this insatiable urge
gaining on me,
like a herd of horses
galloping in the treachery of the wild,
their muscles brushed to a shine
rippling down their calves
to embrace the ground
beneath their ironed hooves
shaking it up, tormenting its calm,
whipping up tremors
that know no chains and travel far.

When she's around
dust and sweat break free
with muscles aching in symphony
the heart is all worked up
like a boiler room in heat
pummeling all of its adrenaline
in one fleeting indulgence
which the universe with all its hatcheries
is itching to contain
before the raging tides in
and floods my world.

She's the elusive horizon
used to passionate chases
and the sly azure lunging at it
for one sweet glimpse of the cleavage where it conjoins with the earth
looking for Elysium that never is.
Ah! But that is what it is
for the tamed to think of love
is an impossibility
for it grows in the wild
separated by a hundred chasms
and a million mazes
waiting for a fool to cross over.

When she isn't around
the rumpled sheets tell our story
for it has seen the storms
that raged in the cavernous nights
and filled up balmy noons
with the savagery of love
still crackling like embers of fire
which have seen better days,
and, light up still, with a death wish
to tell of our smouldering lives
that thrived in spasms of our last breath.

Sabi
My Bosnian honey
The rarest of beauties
Truly an Unicorn amongst steeds
With fleet feet
My heart races towards you
Like a rag of mustangs
Wild and free
             As you are
                   As you make me
Though I'm a world away
I can feel your heart beside me
Beating
        Thunderously
               Like hooves kissing open earth
If only in spirit
It alone sustains
Our kindered hearts
Amongst the world's stampede
With wise words you used to mend
My open wounds past sustained
My debt remains unpaid
Having little to my name
I declare my love
             My commitment
                     My everything
As a token of my endearment
As an answer to your affection
My dearest Sabina

There's a storm a brewin'
You can feel it in your bones
The wind has changed direction
You can hear just how it moans

Silence, all the birds are gone
The dust is moving hard
There's a storm a brewin'
And the devil deals the cards

Batten down the hatches
Let the horses all run free
They'll survive out in the wild
They ain't like you and me

Keep them in the barn tonight
Sure as shooting, when it's done
There won't be one left standing
The storm won't leave you one

The sky is coloured yellow
There's a smell there in the air
There's a storm a brewin'
Try and beat it if you dare

You know you can't outrun it
Best to get to ground
The worst part is the silence
Before it hits there is no sound

There's a storm a brewin'
I'll take my leave now, just as well
I'm off to find a safe place
There it is....I said...that smell

There's a storm a brewin'

Y ante la bondad del mal,
nos encontraremos.
Y ante la maldad del bien,
cabalgaremos.
Y de la piel de nuestros caballos muertos
saldrán mudas hormigas,
que centellearán al anochecer
entre los destellos de mi cuerpo que se pudre.
Y ante la bondad del mal,
moriremos.
Unidos para siempre en un abrazo finito
como finas son las hojas sobre las que escribo.

Y ante la bondad del mal
nos encontraremos.
Preparados para morir,
si no ya muertos.
Y sólo entonces nos comprenderemos.
Y sólo entonces centellearán nuestras bocas
como las hormigas que salen
de la piel de nuestros caballos muertos



And before the goodness of evil,
we'll find each other.
And before the evilness of good,
We'll ride.
And from the skin of our dead horses
mute ants will come out,
which will glisten at sunset
among the flashes of my body that rottens.
And before the goodness of evil,
we'll die.
Forever joined in a finite hug,
like fine are the sheets on which I write.

And before the goodness of evil
we'll find each other,
ready to die,
if not dead already.
And only then we'll understand each other.
And only then will our mouths glisten,
like the ants that come out
from the skin of our dead horses.

I see
the moon, in its fullness
surrounded by curls of clouds

I wait
...for the frog to croak
....in the mist of early evening

i wait,
but...it seems, there's no hope
in hearing its sad song tonight

i hear,
instead, the dark roof creaking
followed by calculated footfalls

and then,
i hear soft scratching on the gate,
soft voices......seem to be calling

i rise,
to see three stray cats lazily slouched
on the sidewalk, purring, looking at me

quickly,
i see this black dog....joining the crowd
its glimmering eyes...looking...asking

and through
the moonglow, and scant light from the
lamp post...i see its *******...all swollen

my God!
where could her puppies be? my eyes wander in
the dark midst of mango trees and banana plants

t'was fed,
along with the cats...black dog ran when its
share was brought there at the dark vacant lot

tonight,
as in past nights, time is slow as a snail,
while i.....am thinking over and over,

how i,
can bring that black dog and her puppies
to safety..........here in my own backyard

in life,
we're like horses rushing...stopped in midstream
by homeless cats, dogs, kids, old, disabled people

either
we keep running...............or, we screech
we halt...and allow them to touch our lives...


Sally

Copyright March 2, 2018
rrab