- After decades
- of donkeying,
- of moving
- solidly,
- bearing
- whatever
- cargo
- needed
- to be moved,
- the load
- is lighter,
- the bearer
- weaker,
- the hooves
- placed
- far less
- surely, the
- old balance
- not what it
- once was,
- y’know.
- Vision
- blurring
- joints
- complaining
- on the
- familiar trail,
- for some
- reason—
- perhaps it was something carelessly said over dinner—
- the small
- gray beast
- remembers
- that it is a
- mustang,
- a tall, proud roan, mane flowing, long legs pawing the wind,
- undomesticated descendant of the Conquistadors’ steeds.
- A case of
- mistaken
- identity
- simple but
- not easily
- rectified in
- the time and space
- available.
