Free Spirit

Free Spirit

A Free-Verse Poem

I am a mustang roaming free

unrestrained as summer thorns

seasoned, dull, even mangy

stubby legs climbing, ever climbing, for new heights

on scrubby grass—I am a mustang on insipid plains

fast as lightning.

I am a mustang, cautious, sensing danger; snakes in tall grass, under rocks.

I am a mustang, breached by cultivation—persistent, outlandish, archaic.

I am the past, a momento, unexpected, valuable, a relic.

A gem needing polish, weathered, rough.

I have the mustang’s weathered hooves and mane; unmanicured unkempt

desiring freedom.

Wind whipping, mane flashing, eyes stinging, breath halting, frost gathering

muscles tensing, fences enclosing.

Today persisting and surviving—tomorrow the glue factory?

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Shirley Langton 2019