Joel Nelson

Written in the Autumn of the Year of the Horse 2002 I have run on middle fingernail through Eolithic morning, I have thundered down the coach road with the Revolution’s warning. I have carried countless errant knights who never found the grail. I have strained before the caissons I have moved the nation’s mail. I’ve made knights of lowly tribesmen and kings from ranks of peons I have given pride and arrogance to riding men for eons. I have grazed among the lodges and the tepees and the yurts. I have felt the sting of driving whips, lashes, spurs and quirts. I am roguish – I am flighty – I am inbred – I am lowly. I’m a nightmare – I am wild – I am the horse. I am gallant and exalted – I am stately – I am noble. I’m impressive – I am grand – I am the horse. I have suffered gross indignities from users and from winners, I have felt the hand of kindness from the losers and the sinners. I have given for the cruel hand and given for the kind. Heaved a sigh at Appomattox when surrender had been signed. I can be as tough as hardened steel – as fragile as a flower. I know not my endurance and I know not my own power. I have died with heart exploded ’neath the cheering in the stands - Calmly stood beneath the hanging noose of vigilante bands. I have traveled under conqueror and underneath the beaten. I have never chosen sides – I am the horse. The world is but a player’s stage – my roles have numbered many. Under blue or under gray – I am the horse. So I’ll run on middle fingernail until the curtain closes, And I will win your triple crowns and I will wear your roses. Toward you who took my freedom I’ve no malice or remorse. I’ll endure – This Is My Year – I am the Horse!