The Raw Winter
That winter no car dared to nose along the lane
stacked with snow between tall hedges.
We piled the prickly hay on sledges
and hauled it halfway up the valley
to where our pony tottered on stilts of ice
packed hard into hooves.
He came to us, stiff legged on the steep slope
his black mane and soft flag of a tail – free floating.
The cold ate strength like a cancer.
We were steam bathing him – eucalyptus and hot water,
arms aching as we shifted from foot to foot
holding a towel over his head.
Every night for six months we stood,
the sharp scent of the infusion clouding
common sense until, by February
we knew it wasn’t working.
Then each evening he came slower,
tail more rag than banner,
one nostril still pouring thick yellow
until at last he became an experiment
at the veterinary hospital and we gained
a pile of mouldy hay and a weed sown field
that not long after exploded into buttercups.
Page(s) 24
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