The World according to poetry #34
Mr. Hot Stuff
By Stephanie Miller
©2019
The big four horse is lost
Forgotten already
Inside the ring of roses and flashbulbs
Winners and losers
Covered in sweat and mud and tears
Two minutes and two seconds ago,
Fifty-to-one and thirty-to-one
We are all jittery at the gate
Thinking only of surging forward
Pounding, and speed
Finish lines and photographs
None of us think of a slow walk
To the paddock
Broken again, heads hanging
With nothing to show for it
But one more ride
In a big race
And one more reason
To race tomorrow