Susie

a "show girl" he had called her.
dark chocolate and white
with a too-frivolous curl
to taunt his vanity
and eyes so deep
beguiling
with a deep dark secret
she flirted
he was sold.

he undertook her training
with a hazel stick
she learned to love
refusing to work but
paraded her compliance
like a best-of-show rosette.

she issued her challenge
of his terms
let it drop sullen
like a rejected treat
her deep dark eyes
as still as a pool
the muddy imprint of a boot
stamping his weakness
her fate in the negative.

she wore her defiance
with dispassionate chic
until he tried to beat her
back behind the front wheel
switching his whip
like a jockey in the home straight.

then rapt with her purpose
she is transformed
he pedals on
with the fixed smile of a condemned man
her nose edging into his ken
like a lurking dread
ears blown back
lolling tongue
eyes ecstatic gleaming
the manic fury of the devil
racing with the hound of hell.

murmuring softly into her ear
he stroked her silent throat
pushed warmed milk through a syringe
she struggled
but he could not let go
remembering how she would not stay to heel.

her cold body
soft still when he found her
shining like dark chenille
against the newsprint
she couldn't be buried in the garden he said
the soil would be contaminated
a man took her away in a sack
she should have been immunised he said
but he didn't trust vets.