Back in June, I excerpted from a new book of poetry by Kaaviya Elangkumarabahu. The book is wonderful, and, as I wrote then, all the more impressive for Kaaviya’s age: 12! Today, I present a new poem by Kaaviya on one of the deceased from Arizona. Completeness, you might remember, died at Turf when she fell and hit her head, with subsequent “thrashing” eventually leading to a fractured skull. She was one year old.
“Completeness”
by Kaaviya Elangkumarabahu
Of all the fates,
The industry’s incurred,
Comes a mystery,
Even deeper.
Completeness,
A mere year old,
Had a fate,
With no public awareness.
On a heavy first day,
Of the week,
On a Monday,
She fell,
Hitting her head.
The reason unknown,
But conditions rise,
As the poor one,
Developed nystagmus,
In both eyes.
A treatment of,
Some anti inflammatories given,
But that did not seem,
To improve things much.
The poor filly,
Became unstable on Wednesday,
Thrashing around in her stall,
And later it was known,
The young one had,
A skull fracture.
Purulent meningomyeloencephalitits,
In both her brain and spine.
Euthanised.
But was this the fate she deserved?
A mere one year old,
Who should’ve been free,
To be,
In the fields,
With her dam,
With other youngsters.
But oh,
No,
No,
No.
The industry,
Sees no less,
Than the harsh track,
The first race,
The first cup.
And just,
Because of the greed,
Completeness,
A tender one year old,
Just lost,
All the days in front of her…
The days where she should’ve been free,
To be,
What she deserved.
A filly,
A horse,
A living being.
But she passed,
Not knowing,
How to fly,
In the wide pastures,
All day and night.
Nature never intended,
That these innocent souls must,
Have harsh fates as such,
Mother Nature never created,
The spirited horse,
To be stuck in a relentless cycle,
Of labour,
Incurred by the industry.
A mere foal,
A tender young one,
Who didn’t know what life was meant to be,
Died.
Euthanised.
Because,
Of none other,
Than the industry.
So may you lie,
Completeness,
In your bed of flowers,
Rest in Peace.
For you deserve it, dear,
You never deserved the fate you had,
But rightfully own the heavenly galaxies,
And,
Remember,
Sweet girl,
You’ll never be forgotten,
As we continue to fight,
Against this cruel industry,
To find justice for you.
The Amazon link for Kaaviya’s book. And her Instagram.
What makes Kaaviya’s poem powerful is that she doesn’t treat Completeness merely as a racing statistic or a veterinary case. She keeps returning to the fact that she was a foal, a living, sentient young horse who should have been growing up with her dam and other youngsters. The repeated “A mere one year old” drives home how profoundly premature her death was. “But was this the fate she deserved?” is really the moral center of the poem. It asks to distinguish between what the industry considers normal and what is humane. A death can be described as an “euthanasia” after an injury, but that doesn’t answer the question of why such a young horse was in a situation where this could happen in the first place. Kaaviya gives Completeness an identity beyond her death: “A filly, A horse, A living being.” That is profoundly important to the way racehorses become numbers, commodities, and entries on a racing chart. For a twelve year old to write with this much compassion is remarkable. Thank you.
That’s a very fitting remembrance! Although in this industry, the ‘bed of flowers’ is strictly imaginary. This barbaric and crude industry could never have that much decency.
Thank you, Kaaviya!