Drab Horses (America, 1958)
Before my cereal lost its crunch,
I'd have the TV on and turned
to cowboy shows. A motley bunch
of bad guys riding round the bend
toward some shenanigans, a race
to no good end. Back at the ranch,
mounting a horse of regal grace,
the white-hat hero holds carte blanche
to end or maim, but won't. He's not
inclined to stoop to kill a man.
Instead, he'd outdraw, and his shots
pinged pistols from the bad guys' hands.
I told the one from the other
chiefly by their horses: drab ones,
nondescript for the roiled bother
of bad guys, horses bright as gun
fire for the good, palominos,
blazing white stallions, appaloosas'
mottled splendor, innuendoes
of the heroes' lofty stature.
The good over the bad like that–
horses they rode, colors of hats.
That was my childhood. That was what
instilled a moral thermostat
that kept me largely unprepared
for every single thing since then:
good guys gaining ground; bad, aware
of who was chasing them, who'd win.
And if the road they raced would fork,
half would take the left, half the right.
Still, the good guy knew a shortcut.
When the roads converged, he'd be tight
on their tails again. Looking back,
I'd change the narrative. I'd spall
the road into a dozen paths,
one for each drab rider to follow.
Each would have another way to go
to other places, stations, ken
divergent from a cowboy show–
sales, construction, dentistry . . . .
The good guy would stand alone. His feats,
his innocent hat, his gaudy horse
would have no counterpoint. He'd cease
his chasing, having no recourse:
examining his sense of purpose–
sensing privilege, immaterial–
he'd see his role in this new locus
the heft of a bowl of cereal.
About the Author: Samuel Prestridge is a post-aspirational man living and working in Athens, GA. His book A Dog’s Job of Work is available through Sligo Creek Publishing. Within the elasticity of the term, his children agree that he is an adequate father.
Image Credit: Włodzimierz Tetmajer “Two horses, sketch” Public domain image courtesy of Artvee
As It Ought To Be 