Peggy*

Here she lies
Old Peggy
My steed
My faithful mount
My companion
My friend
Along many a weary path
And lonesome lane.

We chased our shadows
As one being
And not two.

Where I slept
Peggy slept.
I ate my beans
Drank my coffee
With but my small fire
And her
Munching nearby
Upon sweet grass
Oats, when I drew my pay
And the occasional apple.

We knew both
The sands of coastal dunes
And blistering desert days
And frigid nights.
We knew
The cobblestone of fine cities
And packed clay
And muddied ways of mine towns.

We sang the doggies quiet
‘Neath pale moons.
We forded streams
And swam rivers.
I sometime slept in the saddle
While Peggy navigated the dawn.

We dodged Lucifer's bolts
Hunkered 'neath drenching storms
And watched blue St. Elmo's fire
Flicker across bull horns.

But here our journey ends.
Here Peggy lies
Returning to the earth
From whence she came.

I will have another horse.
Another mount will wear her blanket
Another girth
Will feel the cinch of my saddle.
Another steed will take her bit and bridle.

But there will ‘neer be one as she
Who knew my mind and heart
So well as did Old Peggy.

Rest here, old girl.
Perhaps we may again
Run Elysian fields
Beyond the thunder heads, high.


* See 'The Sorrowful Man' in the right side column. In this shifting world, there is yet an enduring tie between man and beast. May it ever be.