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And Then There Was . . . . . None!
Heads held high in thunderous flight
Across the desert sands of night
You ran in freedom's glorious song
How could you have been done so wrong
Flowing manes of silky sheen
Glorious coats of colors seen
You lived free upon Nevada's sands
To roam the desert free from man
Wild horses of the desert's song
You roamed your world from dusk till dawn
Across the plains and mountains high
Your spirits free to truly fly
So sadly now there is no song
From the desert you are gone
Taken by a human's hand
You now lay dying in the sand
How could their gun be pulled today
Oh noble ones I'm sad to say
That no reason was there for your death
Just cruelty and evil blessed
Who pulled the trigger on the gun
That now has robbed you from the sun
There is a search for miles around
One day soon they will be found
I wonder what they will have to say
Of the travisty of this day
So many hearts now cry with mine
Cries for justice for this crime
But can we ever truly say
There will be justice for this day
Your spirits free from earth now gone
There is no way to right this wrong
Your numbers dwindling every year
In many hearts it brings a tear
To see you now laying on the sand
And know that this was caused by man
What can I say that hasn't been said already. This poem is excellent. One minor thing...3rd stanza, 3rd line plains instead of planes
~LESA~, more on the view you gave us:
These lives were taken....taken and wasted,
their shells left there, laying, telling.
Dead, but NOT DEAD ! !
Into the turquoise sky,
as gleaming new stars
joining their star-songs
with millions gone before.
The only sign left of them is vapor,
a sort of wake and foam
in the ocean of skies.
It is mute, Eternal Evidence
of Man's lost dreams,
failed fondest hopes,
vain and diluted aspirations.
They are not here,
but can we say "They are all gone"?
They are NOT all gone!!
No, while Man may kill his own nature,
he cannot affect the Will of God.
There are ways of men which seem to them "wise",
but to God these are merely the way to Man's destruction.
REX.
"Poe" I'm not, nor "Rich" am I,
but I'll be famous, b'ye and b'ye !
Lesa, It's so disgusting what humans do to our Mother Earth and the wondrous creatures humans share Her with. I had not heard about this particular travesty, but I've heard of other creatures in the deserts in the western US that are dying off because of man's inhumanity and greed and wanting to take over every inch of land. I'm really into bats, and there is a kind of bat in the western US that feeds only on the nectar of a cactus that blooms at night; because of continued development in the region this cactus (and this species of bat) are dying out and disappearing.
You made your point very eloquently in this piece by using an animal most people find absolutly exquisite, though the beauty of this piece's message is that it speaks not only for the wild horses but my bats and all the other creatures that are being killed off and squeezed out so cruelly and greedily. WHO KNOWS what cures or benefits these animals and plants hold for humans? We'll never know if they're killed off!
Heart-rending story indeed. I cannot but join other readers in expressing my outrage & disgust at what some mindless imitations of human beings can do to other living creatures, including other people.
Poetry-wise, you tell the story in very visual, suggestive images, which let the reader picture the wild horses roaming free in their habitat: "desert sands of night," "flowing manes of silky sheen," "wild horses of the desert's song," all add on to the visual power of the poem. I like the frequent use you make of the /s/-sound, which may evoke the sound of the wind upon the desert prairies. The repetition of the words "desert," and "sand bring in the idea of time, & therefore, transience. The irony here, & the outrage, is that transience here is not the natural process of this sublunary world, but the savage, mindless act of fiendish creatures who kill for "pleasure."
Though I hope the perpetrators will be found, there is no punishment enough to atone for this inhuman act. But, then again, in cases such as this and others inflicted on human beings, there really never is a punishment to atone for the crime.
Well done, Lesa. Congratulations on the great reception of this work. Thanks for sharing.
Lesa, this is such a sad and irreverent abuse of life that is sickens me. I understand completely how you feel. This is one of your best works. Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.
Love,
Jess
Outstanding piece of writing! So easy to visualize. Living here in Arizona...I can appreciate the beauty of the wild. Bravo, for a job well done. Keep Smiling and pat yourself on the back.
~Lesa~, I have found a Western-U.S.-motifed artist near me on whom I've laid this Painting idea: a desert in the foreground, mountains across the plain in the background, & a Summer sky beginning to fill with God's tears (due to the event you've described)over it all. There are bodies of dead horses lying on the rocky ground, lying just where they've been shot & killed. But also there are spirit-bodies of these horses, emerging from the corpses, & ascending into the still-bright portion of the blue, western sky. Each dead horse has a newly-alive body; 'why?', you ask: because, also risen from the dust are an equal number of resurrected Indian Warriors, in full paint & dress, arriving from above the skies to meet & re-mount their fresh, newly-alive steeds, & to fly off into the horizon again, on their never-to-end quest of Victories. But, ~Lesa~, I'll need your permission to use your poem to describe more exatly what I want depicted; do I have your permission? Can you find the news article to which you referred? I'd like to see it, too. See, !~Lesa~, you do have the knack of inspiring other hearts! Keep it up!! Rex.
"Poe" I'm not, nor "Rich" am I,
but I'll be famous, b'ye and b'ye !
Yes indeed a very emotive piece.
The history of man is littered with atrocities, both to ourselves and everything around us.
Poor horses... u paint their plight so well, lesa.
Thoughtful and deeply painful.
Dearest Lesa,
Such a soul stirring piece...and to think '...that God looked at what He had made and saw that it was good...and He blessed it and gave Man dominion over it...'
Can't help but wonder why. It has been said theat Man is the only living creature that kills for sport. And WE are supposesedly the superior race?!!!
Go figure!
Amazing the senseless barbarism and blatant disrespect that one huiman being can show toward God's beautiful and free creatures.
Sadly, 'justice' if it truly exists, may not be served from this realm.
in light and Spirit,
BraveHawk
What a humanely touching
piece you have woven here,
Lesa...
A healing foof for thought
for my days ahead...
Oh those wild horses!!!!
May God help humanity in
our insanity!
Ugonna
this is such a wonderful piece of writing...... on a subject that makes me sick....... how could someone do such a horrible thing........ I feel there is nothing cooler than to see a huge heard of horse running free ......
great read...... thanks for bring to mind the beautiful sight that many will never again get to witness........
HI.
Great poem. It brought a tear to my eye. So sad what humans do to their environment sometimes. I wonder if you have ever seen wild horses and know personally of their beauty and majesty? I love nature. I have seen wild horses in Colorado, when I was there with a friend.
~LESA~, I've found some interesting Indian quotes re horses, & these will be included in the Triptich:
Plains Sioux: "Our history is as brief as the buffalo-grass; our people as lasting as the wind in the flowing manes of out warrior horses."
Teton Sioux: "I sing for them, out of the earth; the horses, the providers of our Nation; they are our life."
Apache: "We rise, into the Big Blue Mountain Spirit. Our home is made of blue clouds. Our Home, where our horses ride proudly and free."
Kiowa: "I end. My body turns to light. I with my steed are one, a star that burns forever, shining in the sky, even in the day."
Navaho: "Lo!, the Turquoise Horse of JOHANO-AI! He spurreth dust of glittering-gold-grains! He is Joy!"
(It is becoming apparent to me that more of the Native American opinion of horses will be included, than any of my own or others. I did not know the horse was such an item to them. I am awed by some of their words.)
REX.
"Poe" I'm not, nor "Rich" am I,
but I'll be famous, b'ye and b'ye !