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Open Poetry #25
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Sunshine
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Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354
Listening to every heart

0 posted 2003-03-08 09:24 AM



Thank you, Lucie…

"The Need"

It wasn’t in me to stay cooped inside
on a grand summer day,

nope,

there was too much to see,
do, places to be,

live,

things to try,

and

learn.

Mother’s thin motherly frame was colorless
by a bout of polio from her youth, she
would never flesh out to
womanly comfort, but father loved her
just the same, and agreed,
everyone should have naps in the afternoon…

but oh!  To a young girl who’s best friend
owns the horse down the sandy lane…

who was invited to come, play…
no!
naps will not do!

How best to sneak out of the house, escape
creaking giveaways of floorboards here,
and there,

careful, don’t let screen door squeal on
a wayward runaway who only wants
afternoon discoveries to become
hers…

hurry, hurry to Kathy’s house, hurry, hurry…

before Mom feels me gone…


Freedom!  No sister, no brother in tag-along
what you gonna do, sissy, huh, where we going, huh?
why doesn’t Mom know where we are…huh?


In a skip and bounce that only young in years
can emulate, in a stretch-of-leg-to-be-the-horse
run to liberty…

in take of air that fills one’s lungs to fly…

stretch of arms, be all things at once…
Pegasus becomes my name,
sun-sign suddenly fits…wild
and snorting laughter in independence…

so liberating to be nine on a summer day!

Mother will never know!

There she is, Kathy is waiting, her horse
at her side, oh this day has been long in planning,
for she will let me!  me!  ride her beautiful mare…

oh, bother.  Instructions.  Being older, wiser,
more knowledgeable at 11, she is busy telling me
all those things one needs to know before she will let me
on her horse…

impatience fills my ears, mental thoughts strung out
in silent screech let me on, please!

Manners were carved into my backbone,
the tongue is held in silent beseech…

“Kathy, phone!” her mother’s voice comes from
their screen door, and I know, I know…this is not
a good interruption…

“don’t do anything until I get back!” the command
is flung to the dirt below my feet, my toe digs into
the brown earth, my head hanging…

she disappears.

However…there is a crate over in the corner,  
the horse is not that tall,
perhaps if I put the crate here, by its side,
step up, grab its mane, Kathy will
never know…that I sat her horse
for just a moment…

who measures moments, anyhow?  A mare
knows when fear is present, when someone
is where they aren’t supposed to be,
and a horse knows exactly how to rid themselves
of a sneak in the day…

outside the corral, past the barbed wire,
lay a lovely layer of gravel.

Someone sent an angel
to make sure I would just scrape
the barbed wire with my back,
that I would not break my neck
when I oomphed to ground, gravel
would just crunch under my lightweight,
and Kathy, well, she hid quite nicely
the exasperation behind her face
when she reappeared and said…

your mother wants you home, now!

That long, dusty, dry summer sandy lane
bore the heavy weight
of bruised body and racing mind,
how best to explain what had no explanation…

no longer Pegasus...no longer free...
a life seeming to have ended
with a thud...

to this day, some 40 years later,
I recall both the flight,
the oomph
the return,

the grief-stricken soul…

and the look on my mother’s face.

~*~

Thanks to Lucie for bringing back a memory...

[This message has been edited by Sunshine (03-08-2003 06:28 PM).]

© Copyright 2003 Karilea Rilling Jungel - All Rights Reserved
Enchantress
Member Empyrean
since 2001-08-14
Posts 35113
Canada eh.
1 posted 2003-03-08 09:32 AM


Oh Karilea!!  This triggered a memory..not unlike yours!
I love this..and please please ask Nightshade to recall
the day she ran down our dusty road to climb upon King's back.
(She was only 4 or 5 years old!)
Thank you thank you for this, and memories!
~Hugs~

~ Trace my body with your words..
And in doing so, you touch my heart. ~

littlewing
Member Rara Avis
since 2003-03-02
Posts 9655
New York
2 posted 2003-03-08 09:37 AM


Sunshine - I just love that name - I loved this:

so liberating to be nine on a summer day!

Remember those days too well and wish them back sometimes - beautiful writing  although sadness to it there a bit -  also I adore horses - hope you got to ride many more times and still will xxoo

Midnitesun
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647
Gaia
3 posted 2003-03-08 10:10 AM


"In a skip and bounce that only young in years
can emulate, in a stretch-of-leg-to-be-the-horse
run to liberty…

in take of air that fills one’s lungs to fly…

stretch of arms, be all things at once…
Pegasus becomes my name,
sun-sign suddenly fits…wild
and snorting laughter in independence…"

YES! at anu age, a liberating feeling.
Into my library.

Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049
California
4 posted 2003-03-08 10:21 AM


Karilea

"who measures moments, anyhow?"  Wow!  I could feel this poem right down to my 9 year old flight wings.  Only when I fell I landed in poison ivy.  You wrote a recollection of something wonderful...I loved it!  

Nightshade
Deputy Moderator 5 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Patricius
since 2001-08-31
Posts 13962
just out of reach
5 posted 2003-03-08 11:07 AM


Karilea - thankyou for your words to-day, and all the other days. Seems we have all been here on this plain more than once. The memory of riding so proudly down our street on this swayback, yet once gallant steed, will never, ever leave me. Nor will the look upon my sweet mother's face! lol. hugs to you for all that you do. Chris

"Hope" is the thing with feathers-
that perches in the soul....
                  
                       -Emily Dickinson

Connel
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Senior Member
since 2002-11-04
Posts 736
Florida, USA
6 posted 2003-03-08 11:31 AM


Well, Thats bautiful... I enyoyed it greatly..

Anyone can write, But only poets can capture the heart.

garysgirl
Deputy Moderator 10 ToursDeputy Moderator 5 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Laureate
since 2002-09-29
Posts 19237
Florida, USA
7 posted 2003-03-08 11:46 AM


Karilea, this brought back memories to me, too. My cousins in the country had horses when I was growing up. In the summers when I would go to stay with them, we had a lot of experiences.

It also reminded me when I was about 6 years old and packed a little bag, got on my bike, and rode around the corner to my Grandmother's house......I was running away from home. My Daddy taught me a lesson I never forgot, and I never ran away from home again.  

Thanks for bringing back memories and for sharing your memories with us.

Hugs,
Ethel

Lucie
Senior Member
since 1999-06-20
Posts 1077
Houston
8 posted 2003-03-08 11:55 AM


What a marvelous memory.. and so glad to have helped spur it along so to speak..

Its wonderful to have the ability to close your eyes and bring back the smell of dirt and the feel of the sun on youthful skin. .. ahhh puts me in the mind of more memories.. it must be spring!

Remember me with a smile on your face, or please don't remember me at all.


Janet Marie
Member Laureate
since 2000-01-22
Posts 18554

9 posted 2003-03-08 12:05 PM


stretch of arms, be all things at once…
Pegasus becomes my name,
sun-sign suddenly fits…wild
and snorting laughter in independence…

==================================

loving these images....
and just a Lucy trigger your memory...look at the chain reaction you have stirred here

and now you know...
"moms know everything"

nakdthoughts
Member Laureate
since 2000-10-29
Posts 19200
Between the Lines
10 posted 2003-03-08 12:47 PM


awww..you really know how to push the buttons...you have a beautiful way of telling tales..true and made up.

I love this line besides many others:

who measures moments, anyhow? mainly because I do measure moments...a very inspiring phrase
hugss
M

Duncan
Member Ascendant
since 2001-08-07
Posts 5455

11 posted 2003-03-08 07:20 PM


'In a skip and bounce that only young in years
can emulate, in a stretch-of-leg-to-be-the-horse
run to liberty…

in take of air that fills one’s lungs to fly…

stretch of arms, be all things at once…
Pegasus becomes my name,
sun-sign suddenly fits…wild
and snorting laughter in independence…

so liberating to be nine on a summer day!'


I remember running and feeling like that, like I could almost fly...  

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