That mare needs some horse hypnosis.
She’s in a long line of unrequited desirers
Toward Brio, who sticks to his grain
And his noble reputation.
Today he puts on a trotfest for hypnotists
Visiting, checking in with big eyes
On each observer, a smile pulled up
To go with his raised Arabian tail.
But the constant whine continues
The whole time he’s turned out.
If he’s not beside her every moment
It seems she will die.
She’s in the adjacent stall, wears Pink Boots
With a horse everyone thinks is her match,
Call him Blue Boots. He is not pleased
At this turn of events.
He looks so confused he’s in no mood
To woo her back, intent as he is
To track every eyebat
And grimace at each whinny.
There’s a divider fence between
But she leans her head in so far
Brio has to hunker down for hay
Whenever he happens to be near her.
If he did anything, anything at all
The spell would be broken,
But for now she’s quiet
At her stallion’s return.
He is a sovereign, as few of us are,
Barely thinking of others except as
They amuse him, and they rarely do,
His self-possession is that acute.
He doesn’t need the puffery of Pink Boots
But accepts all of her love
Without the burden of it being returned,
In fact, barely noticing.
The other horses crave attention
Though inevitably only to steal it
From another confidence equine,
A fellow wizard of hypnotism.
“Look into my eyes,” and your world dissolves
Because there is someone else
Who returns your stare as though he cares
Because God does.
They bite at each other as ethics enforcers,
So there’s no long-term harm to poor humans.
We are always harsher on our own kind,
The one we see in the mirror.
“Give your horse a better mattress”
The flake bag says, a reminder it’s all love
Even with all that would get in the way,
Like the mule deer that grabbed our attention.
The sovereign among us know
It’s our love that makes us worthy
Of claiming our birthright, to stroke as we dare
Chocolate Chip, the Leopard Appaloosa.
