are unbranded calves or yearlings. yearlings are animals between a year or two in age ー particularly sheep, calves, or foals. foals are young horses. horses are large, domesticated mammals with solid hoofs and a flowing tail, used for riding, racing, and carrying loads. send my pity to the one horse not yet mavericked. i wonder daily, what if he too were unbranded? if he strode in fields unpurchased as slowly as he pleased? if he plowed dreams and only dreams? perhaps he’d learn literacy. earn a degree. secure a job. attain suffrage. perhaps he’d run still, but solely for sport. perhaps he’d ride in a car instead, and rest in the owner’s corner, and gaze out the window at plantation after plantation darting past like his forefather who once saddled an entire nation on his broad, bruised back. yes, send my pity to that one horse. is that him there? the runaway in the lawn dodging lassos? send my pity to him when he is returned to the ranch that bred him.
neigh, whinny
the stable echoes
no one near
Isaac Akanmu is a Nigerian American from Staten Island, NY now living in Charlotte, NC. His poetry has been published in Encounters Magazine andis forthcoming in Posit and Ekstasis.
Instagram: @insteadofisaac
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