OF INFINITE BEAUTY AND SADNESS I have never told this story before; though I’ve tried on many occasions. The indescribable sadness of it all, stops me every time. When I was 13, my father took me to the desert to shoot lizards. Lizards are small, quick, and move unpredictably; erratically. If you can hit a lizard with a tiny BB, you can hit anything. We wandered threw the desert; It was a very dry 115 degrees. The desert seems bare of life, sanitized of life; it is not. Off in the near distance; Overhead, vultures circled ominously. Father & I head in that direction to see what we can see. A beautiful black horse like the black stallion from the movie. A mare, completely black without break or varying shades. It stands under the shade of the only tree for miles in a unforgiving wasteland. At the mother equines feet lay her foal, also a jet black beauty. The mother horse, such an image of beauty and horror. She, the mare, was completely emaciated; just skin and bone. The young foal, also emaciated lay dead at her feet. 50 yards away was an oasis with nothing to eat, but water to drink. I could count every individual bone in both their bodies. The mother horse was hungry & so desperately thirsty. She would eye the water longingly as she nudged her child to wake up. You could tell she hadn’t had a drink of water in several days. She would start to walk to the oasis; but would only get a few yards. As soon as she would start to walk away, the vultures would swoop in. And the mother horse would come running back to shoo them away. It was, at least to me, much more than maternal instinct; it was love. Love chained her to her baby. Love made her resist the urge to get a drink. Love could not let her bear witness to her dead foal being consumed. As long as she had a single breath she would protect her child. As soon as she would start to walk away, the vultures would swoop in. It was the most beautiful and horrible thing I have ever witnessed. 20 years have gone by, but still it haunts and fascinates me to this day. Like a sweet symphony played to angels singing as each is cruelly decapitated. I cried and begged my father to do something, anything, but he could not. Then please, please take me away from this place, away from the horror it bears. Away from infinite beauty and sadness so that my waking nightmare shall end. A mother chained to her child by love until she died; she died protecting her young.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 05:36:30 +0000
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