I Like a Windy Day

I like a windy day,

When the wind comes to tease and play

And we prance and dance around the meadow.

I like the wind to toss the leaves

To bend the trees,

And make them clap their hands.

I like to feel like a wild pony

And run and kick

And toss my mane and tail.

But this fierce arctic wind is a nasty bastard

And I wish he would go back from whence he came.

Kathie Adams Brown (March 22, 2015)

National Poetry Writing Month starts in one week! NaPoWriMo 2015

My Daughter Rides

Some dreams are born
While we are young
And never fulfilled,
They are passed on
To our offspring
And so my daughter rides
The horses I once dreamed of
And I watch in wonder as
She moves in harmony
With the creature of my dreams
The horse I so desired,
But, I am not jealous
Nor filled with regret
Her dream is now fulfilled,
And I am content.

~Kathie Adams Brown (May 16, 2010)

OSI Prompt 118: LOVE

Bloodlines

Morning shadows fall
on the white stable
of thoroughbreds waiting
for alfalfa
green and fragrant.

I lift the bales
And think of my grandfather
Feeding his cattle
Four decades ago,
And know
That I carry his blood
In my veins.

I hear
the munching,
grinding, contentment
of horses being fed.

I feel
the blood pumping
connection
of labor and sweat,
and providing for
these animals,
this hay.

I toss another flake,
and stand almost alone
in a flurry of floating green.

~Kathie Adams Brown
(September 11, 2000)

Happy Birthday Grandpa! I still miss you.

OSI Prompt 51: Spectral

Eight Belles

Eight Belles shining in the Kentucky sun,
Eight Belles waiting for a mighty run.

The bell sounded,
the gates flung wide,
Eight bells matched the boys,
stride for stride,
‘till one Big Brown pulled ahead,
--a big brown colt with a big pounding heart.
and Eight Bells on delicate legs
threw her heart after him
threw her heart into the wind,
her long black legs reached for the sky
and as Big Brown crossed the finish line,
her black legs cracked on the sandy earth
where she tried to fly. Her-

--pounding heart,
--beating heart,
--throbbing heart,

couldn’t pulse
those broken legs

on Kentucky Derby day

Eight Belles bleeding in the Kentucky sun,
Eight Belles made her final run.


~Kathie Adams Brown (May 4, 2008)

One Single Impression

Prompt 31: Fleeting

Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

Swift, magnificent

Running, enduring, winning,

Winner, star—dobbin, plug,

Pulling, straining, dying,

Old, forgotten,

Nag.

~Kathiebirds (October 1, 1974)