LIONS

The females are the better hunters

The National Geographic says.

Mom was always the backbone and the strength of the family.

Her jaw broken from the kick of a zebra

Unable to eat

The lioness will die a few weeks later.

I glance at Mom writhing in pain on the couch

Her face taut with dignity.

Dad doesn't know what to do

And my sister can't take it anymore.

We've never seen Mom this bad

The cancer

The arthritis

And it's pouring outside

The house is sick with gloom.

At least Mom would always smile

I could always make her laugh.

I escape into the article on lions again

The one kicked in the mouth--

Her jaw...is dangling.

appeared in THE RUTHERFORD RED WHEELBARROW,
# 7, 2014

HORSE RACE IN RICHMOND

Beautiful day

Beautiful people drinking beer in the benevolent sun

Watching the beautiful horses run

Stomping the feminine grass with  their hooves

Jumping hurdles

Throwing riders who roll like balls on the green

  the earth shaking

  as the stampede thunders by.

One rider gets up and removes his hat:

  long blonde hair comes tumbling down

  and this bewildered disappointed rider is a woman!

As I wait for the horses to circle the track

I'm enjoying the scents of cigars, charcoal, gasoline, and perfume in the crowd.

And the people I enjoy:

  the handsome men and beautiful women.

Yes the women!

They are magnets

  and I'm an unyielding scrap of metal

  pulled toward

  but held back by a wedding ring.

The announcer calls the race so skillfully

His voice's tempo and passion rise and fall with the rhythm of the race

 and I  feel the horses rounding the curves of the track before they appear.

Here they come!

Another rider falls at a jump

  and the riderless horse fades like time around the curve.

I wait for the next race while my brother-in-law talks to some Richmond neighbors

  young business types drunk on their asses

  while I, rich without much money

  retire by myself on the track fence and wait for the next race

  and stare at the free beautiful sky and luscious grass.

Colorful flags flap wildly in the wonderful Virginia breeze

  and the little smears of pink and grey in the curved distance of the track

  are people along its circumference,

  and I'd paint them of I could

  with horses in the center

  coming around the bend.

appeared in Horse Race in Richmond: 
THE RUTHERFORD RED WHEELBARROW, # 2,  2009

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© Copyright, 2014, George Pereny.
All Rights Reserved.