Pony
for Jude
(and the WYPOD)
“A pony, a pony, my kingdom for…” Of course,
he didn’t want a pony. He was losing the battle
and the kingdom’s sceptre is not a baby’s rattle
to be tossed aside, even for the fastest horse.
Ponies and palfreys are not for kings. A princess
may ride a pony, and a side saddle, fit for a queen,
may grace a horse’s back, but a horse between
a princess’ legs is crass. How cramped the dress,
how wrinkled the nobleman’s brow seeing
his daughter, his wife, the female of the breed
straddling, legs apart, a broad-backed steed.
No: ponies are for Christmas, not for kings fleeing.
A horse, then, hung with bells, covered in red:
not with ribbons, but the old king, flayed and dead.
rogermoorepoet 
A lot of references here Roger… Shakespeare, Carroll… marvellous
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So glad you like it. I wrote it for a friend. Sometimes those poems are the best.
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Your poems are off a consistently high quality Roger…I need to write more poetry…hmmm
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Thank you. I consider myself a poet, and a critic of poetry, before anything else.
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Well I am probably a short story writer more than anything else. Then a poet, then an essayist. Trouble is I don’t think I have achieved mastery over any of them. Hmmm
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Most of us are a long way from mastery. But it doesn’t mean we should stop trying.
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It would be nice though, sometimes I feel like I am making progress and other days not so much.
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I think we all feel like that. Some days I want to destroy all my work: all worthless. Other days, the sun shines and I feel I have managed to accomplish one or two small things.
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Well don’t do that Roger, you certainly have accomplished something.
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I am slowly revising and placing my major texts on Amazon / Kindle. The local university will take my notebooks, journals, and a full collection. I do not intend to “go gentle”!
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Having been an avid horse rider, I always wondered how women could sit side saddle…
Great piece, Roger!
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I think it was a social prohibition, certainly in Spain’s Golden Age (16th and 17th centuries). Men have been telling women what they can and can’t do for a very long time … much too long a time …
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Lol…agreed.
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