HW volunteer Ronda Cooperstein offers another beautiful poem. Thank you, Ronda.
(If you’d like to share a writing – a poem, a personal story about a horse – on our site, please reach out: patrickjbattuello@gmail.com.)
“Beyond Click Bait”
He was running for his life
When he left the track.
He would never go back.
And the traffic stopped
Along the freeway
Where startled drivers
Honked and laughed,
Held up their phones
To click and share
With everyone everywhere.
And the captions read
THIS CRAZY CREATURE
GREAT FACEBOOK FEATURE!
That’s what the 2-legged lunatics said…
A freedom-seeking horse was nothing
But click bait, a joke…
(All that Kool-Aid they loved
Had killed their conscience
And critical thinking skills.)
They didn’t wonder why he ran
Or ask how it all began in the first place
When he was pumped up and made to race
Around and around
On a black track merry-go-round,
Then stuffed in a stable
Or shoved onto a truck.
Suppressed, depressed, oppressed
Against his nature and his will.
When he kicked, he kicked
For freedom, not to kill.
And that’s how it was when the colt
On Facebook crossed the freeway that day.
Yes, the odds were against him,
But he won and got away!
Great poem! This type of event really happened many years ago! Before Portland Meadows properly fenced in the front side several horses actually did leave the track at the end of a race. They thankfully could not get up onto I-5 as its elevated area hwy to the west of where the now defunct track was located. It took several days to round up the horses! It was cool & wet at the time so plenty of grass & available water in area.