Hi. A disclaimer: this isn’t a proper National Poetry Writing Month Post. This is only a NaPoWriMo-related post. This is “NaPoWriMo, Day 6, Now with Visual Aids.”
This is me taking a day off from drafting a new poem to take inspiration from day-before yesterday’s poem and go groom my horse. Photos are included to establish my barn cred, but I’ll try, along the way, to keep things at least somewhat literary.
Readers, please allow me to introduce Rose:
My love is like a brown, brown rose
Rose is a 23 year-old Quarter Horse. I’ve had her since she was 7.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single horse in possession of a thick haircoat must be in want of a human upon whom to deposit it.
Rubbing the rubber currycomb around and around and around and around:
I placed a currycomb in Tennessee
I scrubbed enough hair off of Rose to make a whole other pony!
I wandered lonely as a dustcloud
For the next two hours, I brushed her: stiff brush, medium brush, soft brush, face brush. I also trimmed her mane, cleaned her hooves, and shampooed some mystery gunk off her lower legs.
After all that standing tethered, Rose enjoyed a carrot reward. Here, Rose is saying, “Thanks for the–hey, is that green grass over there?
I went into the barn because I wished to live allergically
Yes, Rose. Yes, it is.
Grazing is truth, truth grazing,--that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Tomorrow, so long as my arms haven’t fallen off, we’ll return to our regularly scheduled NaPoWriMo posts. Cheers!
The horse-hair horse was the most delightful thing I’ve seen all morning. Thanks for the smile!
Thanks, David! Making those hair-ponies is sort of a springtime tradition–they always make me smile, too. (And after that, the cowbirds and swallows have a handy resource for building their nests!)
Aw, anyone who takes care of the birds and the poetry is A+ in my book.
Jennifer, brilliant – I really enjoyed this!
In a way this is a collage with photos and quotes. Perhaps your next piece can be about “dressage”?
Rose is lovely! And so shiny once you’re done. I think you could sell the hair ponies on Etsy.
Why, thank you! Rose will be flattered to hear that.
And that’s an intriguing marketing opportunity you bring up. Problem is, those hair ponies are a bit…ephemeral. You know, like those icicle sculptures by Andy Goldsworthy that melt once the sun hits them. Oh, I have an idea: HAIRSPRAY! Thanks a million, Marilyn–we’re gonna be rich!
[...] of three weeks, I received a business tip from Marilyn Cavicchia, Editor and Poet, to sell my horse-hair ponies on Etsy; was initiated, also by Marilyn, into the sacred rite of post-Easter roasting of [...]