A Remedy for Loneliness

It’s National Poetry Month again. Wanted to share this Jessie Haas poem that she crafted from a true story. (For me, the richer experience is imagining the poem rather than the poem itself.)

Company for Breakfast
Ashton Timson lived alone, up there on the hill.
Bred good work stock.
One year a mare died on him.
Ashton raised her colt on a bottle.
It did all right.
Some folks came up to visit one morning.
Near the house they heard talking.
“Ashton must have company!”
They knocked
He came to the door.
Behind him in the kitchen,
Was that good-sized workhorse colt.
“I was lonely, and so was he,” says Ashton,
“So I asked him in to breakfast.”

1940s, Williamsville, Vermont

—from Hoofprints, by Jessie Haas
 

[Pic is from America’s Horse Daily, which warns “Television is not recommended for foals.”]

Finally, A Little Good News

In the last couple of months, my reading has randomly uncovered one sad story after another, many of them about losing the one creature the writer (or one of the writer’s remaining animals) had the strongest bond with. Needless to say, I’ve been a little weepy.

I don’t seek this kind of darkness. It somehow finds me and peels away whatever gossamer layer was beginning to encase my own rawness.

But today I stumbled upon a 2008 blog post from Mugwump Chronicles that warmed my heart. I bet it will do the same for you. (Just click through the link.)

[Pic from DesktopNexus.]