A Gelding Remembers

The sudden sound of thunder,
a memory, unearths,
within the gelding's brain
of wild hooves that once pounded
across an open plain;
a river of proud horses;
fire running through their veins
and the wild wind in their manes.

 

But the silver flash of lightning;
its incision in the sky
brings him back with a jolt
to the sadness of his present;
the cramped darkness of his stable
and his spirits, trampled low.

 

And so, silently, he listens,
with a tear herd in his eye,
to the trotting through the darkness
of the cold, empty rain.