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Open Poetry #12
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jwesley
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-04-30
Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

0 posted 2001-02-03 01:50 AM





Buffalo Hunt


Huge, deep-dark brown,
almost black,
the bull snorted,
eyed the two Indians on horseback
approaching steadily from his left.
Angrily, proudly, he snorted again,
plowed the ground with his foot,
shook his massive, shaggy head,
bellowed and began to run.
Hoof to hump the bull,
half-a-head taller than most men,
ten feet from nose to bushy tail tip,
half-covered in coarse, black, curly hair,
weighing close to a ton,
shook it's huge horned head,
a challenging bellow-roar rising above
the cacophony of hoofbeats and bawls
from the herd on his right.
Humps heaving up and down
like the prows of ships
besting the seas in the midst of tempest
the herd created choking clouds of dust,
filled with the cloying odor and stench
of great beast in panicked flight.
Foamy spittle spilling wind-whipped
from it's mouth, the mamoth bull
cut from the herd running full bore
at the nearest horseman who'd come too close;
in one fluid motion, never missing a step,
it gored savagely into the horse's side,
tossing horse and rider over it's shoulder,
spun in it's tracks,
caught the second horse square in the chest,
stumbled back on it's haunches,
stopping the horse,
dead.
The massive buffalo rose,
nuzzled the crumpled rider,
lifted it's nose to the sky,
bellow-roared loud and long,
pawed the earth in great clumps of grass-dirt,
shook it's great body
and began to run…

w.  james beard, jr.
© January 2001





© Copyright 2001 Wesley James Beard, Jr. - All Rights Reserved
Paula Finn
Member Ascendant
since 2000-06-17
Posts 5546
missouri
1 posted 2001-02-03 02:04 AM


Jimmy...the hunter becomes the hunted...I can just SEE this happening...the panic stricken horses...the bull massive and magnificent in his strength...at least by the Indian he was hunted for all the right reasons...wonderful poem

We all have wings...some of us don't know why


Agust P
Member
since 2000-12-29
Posts 157

2 posted 2001-02-03 04:46 AM


what a painting, heavy, very well done, keep on writing my friend, AP
laryalee
Member
since 2000-06-19
Posts 352
Alberta, Canada
3 posted 2001-02-03 08:37 PM


What an awe-inspiring scene - such marvellous detail, it leaps from the page - I can smell it, see it, feel it... One of the best descriptive poems I've read!
Absolutely top notch!
Lary

jwesley
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-04-30
Posts 7563
Spring, Texas
4 posted 2001-02-03 09:58 PM


Thank you my friends...magnificant animals indeed.  Used to work with them in a zoo
and they were to be respected. Very fast.

jwesley

[This message has been edited by jwesley (edited 02-03-2001).]

jwesley
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-04-30
Posts 7563
Spring, Texas
5 posted 2001-02-04 01:04 PM


oops! too fast to reply here - thought I was in a different piece.  Sorry.  j.



[This message has been edited by jwesley (edited 02-04-2001).]

Mother_Earth
Senior Member
since 2000-11-20
Posts 1370
1/2 year Texas & 1/2 year Michigan
6 posted 2001-02-04 03:18 PM


I am trying to get the dust out of my nose and eyes to tell you this is a great piece to a great animal. I have seen many , in ND, up close and personal and they are GREAT.  I liked this muchly.  ME
jwesley
Member Rara Avis
since 2000-04-30
Posts 7563
Spring, Texas
7 posted 2001-02-04 03:47 PM


Nice to know you enjoyed the piece ME, especially with you personal experience with them.  Can't make him as beautiful as Marge does, but he, too, can be a winner in the hunt.

jwesley

[This message has been edited by jwesley (edited 02-04-2001).]

Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354
Listening to every heart
8 posted 2001-02-04 03:48 PM


James!  What a scene....and I did so like the fact that in this instance, the buffalo was triumphant, although a horse lover I am...

well done Sir!

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