Poem: "Braiding Manes"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem is spillover from the December 6, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from fuzzyred and see_also_friend. It also fills the "Prairies" square in my 12-1-22 card for the Wonders of Nature Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Dr. Infanta and Iron Horses threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.


"Braiding Manes"

[Monday, September 28, 2015]

Kenzie wasn't much interested in politics.

Studying spiritual responsibilities, yes;
various types of tribal activism, yes;
cultural events like powwows, yes;
but his role in the state affairs of
Rocky Boy's Reservation consisted
largely of taking his horse form and
dressing up in full regalia to carry
elders to important meetings.

So he knew that the Maldives
and Thalassia were reaching out
to the First Nations and had sent
representatives around Montana,
but he hadn't followed it too closely.

Then he found out that one of
the representatives was a horse.

Judd wasn't particularly interested
in politics either, having come along
with a human friend; but he was
quite interested in finding out
how the locals treated horses.

Thus Kenzie came out
to the tribal corral to find
a swarm of maidens armed
with brushes and combs,
baskets of flowers, mirrors,
and bundles of ribbons.

Oh, so Judd liked
dressing up too.

This ought to be fun.

So far, the girls were
bedecking Judd with
flowers in shades of
pink, purple, and white.

Indian paintbrush was
a deep pinkish-red.

Hoary tansy-aster and
smooth blue aster were
lavender and pale blue.

White prairie aster and
yarrow were both white.

They all looked splendid
against his glossy black coat.

Kenzie's appearance made
the girls scurry out into the prairie
to search for different flowers.

They brought goldenrod,
golden tickseed, and
prairie coneflower in
shades of yellow.

The blanketflowers
were yellow with bits
of red, orange, bronze,
or brown in the centers.

They looked dazzling
against his chestnut spots.

It was so relaxing to stand
in the warm sun with girls
combing and brushing
and braiding his mane.

Judd reached over
and draped his head
over Kenzie's back
in a horsey hug.

Yeah, that was nice.

* * *

Notes:

Montana Fall Flowers (see family Asteraceae)
Kenzie: blanketflower, goldenrod, golden tickseed, prairie coneflower
Judd: Indian paintbrush, hoary tansy-aster, smooth blue aster, white prairie aster, yarrow

Braiding manes and tails of horses is often done for parades. You can also use artificial clip-on flowers.
 

Comments

Re: Thoughts

[acelightning73]

Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs, and Steel is on a nearby bookshelf. It explains why the Aztecs didn't just build ships and invade Spain.

The much-debated practice of "guaranteed basic income" has been tried, and the results weren't as feared. Everybody figured that giving every human being food, shelter, and education would result in a world where NOBODY EVER WORKS at anything. People would just sit around watching TV and drinking beer all day. Now, who built the TVs or brewed the beer? When they actually tried it (in FInland, IIRC) it turned out that idle people got BORED. SOmetimes they'd just make trouble, but sometimes people would would take up a skill that interested them and get good at it. Maybe someone who had been barely able to afford rent and food working at a suit-and-tie job takes up embroidery, and becomes a fabulous fabric artist. Or someone walking by sees me fixing my bicycle and asks me if I could fix theirs for them. Eventually I wind up teaching people how to fix their own bicycles. And someone teaches me how to set up a kitchen garden, or gives me a delicious cake recipe, or helps me paint my house. This is now a VILLAGE. We are connected by how we conduct our lives together.

One human being alone, isn't likely to have all the skills to survive - how to hunt, how to build shelter, how to make tools, how to recognize weather - So this is why we lived in families, clans, tribes, and villages. The blacksmith can't weave. The baker can't fight very well. The weaver is a terrible cook. And the fey little child who can barely speak communicates perfectly well with horses, cows, pigs, and sheep. And the kid with the funny-looking foot is amazingly artistic. So, without capitalism, everyone's basic needs get met. I wish we could try it.

Re: Thoughts

[see_also_friend]

I read Guns, Germs and Steel, too.

>>Now, who built the TVs or brewed the beer?<<

Either the machines did it, or the same argument as Schrodinger's immigrant who simultaneously takes your job while loafing around all day on welfare. Which is to say, self-serving illogical nonsense.

Re: Thoughts

[see_also_friend]

>>Maybe someone who had been barely able to afford rent and food working at a suit-and-tie job takes up embroidery, and becomes a fabulous fabric artist.<<

We'd have a lot more artists if artists didn't need rich patrons for most of history.

>>So, without capitalism, everyone's basic needs get met. I wish we could try it.<<

I'd suggest refining the system a bit more than just non-capitalism. Feudalism, pure socialism, and dictatorships all have severe drawbacks as well.

But, yeah, I get the point you are making, I'm just being a bit of a suspicious cynic.

Re: Thoughts

[acelightning73]

"From Matthew 6, 25-33:

25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[a] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?[b] 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God[c] and his[d] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
— Matthew 6:25–6:33

I don't expect God to pay for my food and rent; I expect my elected government to do it because they are supposed to take care of their citizens. And God and Jesus seem to want people to take care of each other. Strangely enough, people manage to make it work at least some of the time.

Re: Thoughts

[see_also_friend]

>>And God and Jesus seem to want people to take care of each other. Strangely enough, people manage to make it work at least some of the time.<<

I'm tempted to start pointing out to certain religiously-devout people that stuff like anti-homelessness bills essentially mean it is okay to arrest God. (They won't listen, of course, but if you can't be convincing, at least be amused by your own shenanigans!)

Re: Thoughts

[acelightning73]

Well, a lot of the migrants are from Mexico. Some underpaid cop might misunderstand the name "Jesus" on some guy's ID card.

And what ever became of "Liberty Enlightening the world", who sings "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. the wretched refuse of your teeming shore; send these, the homeless tempest-tost to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door.!" Because of her anyone who isn't Native American is the descendant of immmigrants. My ancestors immigrated in 1620; some of yours might have gotten the cheapest passenger ticket on a ship they could get, to come here from some troubled European nation. All the Jews and Irish, Italian and Polish, Norwegians and Poles, Czechs and Ukrainians, came here following her beacon.

Re: Thoughts

[see_also_friend]

Advantages of naming your kid Jesus: an easy way to get rid of door-to-door religion-salespeople:
"Have you found Jesus?"
"Yeah, he's on the couch. What has that kid done now?"
"???"

My earliest immigrant ancestor was on some of the early ships in the 1600's, most recent was 1890's. Of
course, that means we might be cousins about twenty-something generations back! (Though by that logic, I probably have at least half a million cousins, if not more...)

Re: Thoughts

[acelightning73]

I'm a genuine Mayflower descendant, apologizing to the Wampanoag for stealing their food. At least when people heard about the Pilgrims, it gave some of them the idea of trying to go make a colony. Which is why we have towns in Maryland named after saints, Norwegians in Minnesota, Italians in Staten Island, and Mexicans in Texas.

Anyway, even if our family trees diverged centuries ago, we're still all neighbors.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

See voluntary land taxes for one way to disown ancestral misbehavior.

Re: Thoughts

[see_also_friend]

I'd have to look up the ship names, but I did have ancestors rattling around America at least as far back as King Phillip's War.

At some point, everything comes back around, I guess.

Re: Thoughts

[acelightning73]

Some wise person once said, "History doesn't exactly repeat itself; it RHYMES."

Re: Thoughts

[see_also_friend]

That's a good way to put it.