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Unbroken Horses (Free verse) by Caducus
My Grandfather spat tobacco
bridling his limbs to stand.
He mixed cortisone and bourbon
raising a beaker to spoilt loaves
saying 'God rest her soul'.
I hid his shotguns that day
as he looked for bullets,
his quarry, my unbroken horse.
That day I discovered jackals
barked from his bitter tongue
"Your're just like your Mother
you Fatherless bastard"
truth matures from sour mash.
I hid in the stable with 'Donkey'
but I called him 'Beauty'
Grandfather never broke him
just Grandma,
when she died face down
on fresh linen.
I freed 'Beauty' and wept.
Watched him buck and run,
thought of Mums death
and my murderous birth
born again each October fifteenth
by grandfathers matches
and grandma's icing.
He locked the stable door
loaded his gun yelling 'Donkey'
as I watched through the wood lattice.
'Beauty' was shot in the hind leg
tried to stand three times but fell.
by the time I escaped the stable
he stood shaking in canter clouds
and walked with me till he died.
Grandfather called me a cissy
only to die on St Patricks day
face down in vomit
on his knees alone
by his broken horse.
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