Second Story
index:

             
DEPARTURE

See, against the sunrise blood
he trembles - is hurried on
by raucous whips, cruel jerks on halter,
obscene, bitter words.

Head drooping, ears listless,
dull eyes rheumed, thin-coated,
he falters toward the entrance
to a loading chute.

Has he forgotten how he led
the band in mad, twilight races
with the singing wind across
the prairies, fired by scent
of greening poplar buds,
Saskatoon and gold
wolf willow flowers,
the high wild trumpeting,
the singling out of mate,
the iron-muscled coupling,
the glow of after-pride?

Safe inside the pasture fence,
heads on the topmost wire
his offspring dumbly watch.

O sachem of the plains - rear
strike out with slashing hoofs,
thunder across the plains,
leave loading chute, man's greed,
and foxes' appetites behind.
             

Second Story
by Mildred A. Rose

The
Mildred Rose
Collection

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Copyright 1976 by Mildred A. Rose,
all rights reserved.
Originally published by The Music House Press.
No part of this collection may be reproduced,
except in short reviews, without the
author's permission.