February 2014

Circling

          by bg Thurston

Her belly is silent with colic, her legs stiff with age.

A ragged mane, half white, half brown sticks out

over a shaggy face, grey hair feathering her cheeks.

Her past unknown, she could be from Chincoteague—

the pinto pony I wished for when I was seven.

We walk in frozen circles, exhaling thick plumes.

Each time I stop, her legs crumple, her small body

thuds down on its side. Shrill nickers of pain escape.

I pour more soda and ginger down her throat.

The vet comes, shakes his head, injects Banamine.

I expect her gone by morning, but she’s there,

waiting at the fence for feed and hay and attention.

Her whiskery lips move over corners of the bucket

steaming with molasses, sliced carrots, and bran mash.

She snuffs at my pockets, hoping for more.

Published in The Wolf Head Quarterly, Summer 1998  Volume 4 -- Issue 3

The term “colic weather” refers to drastic temperature changes which can sicken horses.

After a career in high-tech, bg Thurston now lives on a farm in Warwick, Massachusetts. Her first book, Saving the Lamb, by Finishing Line Press was a Massachusetts Book Awards highly recommended reading choice in 2008. Her second book, Nightwalking, was released in 2011 by Haleys. Currently, she is writing the history of the 1780’s farmhouse she lives in. She teaches poetry workshops year-round, except in March when she is busy with lambing season.