On This Hill | Lin Marshall Brummels
The Appy was from a herd
of sixty wild horses
from a western Nebraska ranch
Hoss bought when he
and the horses were young and he
fancied himself a horse trader.
It was all before Hoss decided
to go to graduate school
and fell in love with science,
became a teacher and researcher.
We had an older Appaloosa, with matching
spots, took on the new horse, named
him Junior. He was always wary of people,
dangerous to walk behind
threw my husband,
a pretty good horseman, a few times.
We talked it over with friends,
decided to send Junior to slaughter.
Neil, another darn good horseman
offered to take the outlaw,
save him from the abattoir.
He couldn’t tame
wild from Junior either,
called him Lucky-to-be-Alive Spot,
kept him as a companion for Ghost,
his dependable mare.
Time passed as it will,
My husband left, Neil lost his pasture,
Ghost turned up lame; Lucky Spot stayed cagey.
I started boarding horses,
Kept Ghost and Lucky Spot alive
with my old horses
for another fifteen years.
Ghost at thirty-five was the first to go.
Independent to the last,
Lucky Spot selected his resting place
in my undulating pasture, fell, telling me,
as only a horse can, I will die on this hill.
About the Author:
Lin Marshall Brummels earned a BS from the University of Nebraska and a MS from Syracuse University. She is a licensed Nebraska counselor. Brummels has published poems in Poet Lore, San Pedro River Review, Concho River Review, Oakwood, Plainsong, Nebraska Life, and others. Her chapbooks by Finishing Line Press are “Cottonwood Strong” and “Hard Times,” a 2016 Nebraska Book Award winner. Books: “A Quilted Landscape,” Scurfpea Publishing. Forthcoming, The Last Yellow Rose, Sandhills Press.