The Palouse (Appaloosa Horse)
Bred by Nez Perce tribes along the Palouse River, your ancestors gave you those pleasing traits
you spotted horse, with the distinct sclera; not two of you look quite alike in markings of the skin
Once, some lover of another breed scoffed at the sight of you: “This Indian horse is the only breed the lamest warrior could catch with ease”
He looked at you, and you gazed at him, and I saw mischief flicking in your eye—one that is so human-like
And while we talked some more about the price of good horseflesh, he praised the Quarter Horse—
that’s when you raised one light-dark striped hoof, as though by chance, and stepped on his booted foot
I laughed, “My friend, now go an’ try to catch a slow Palouse”
But you grew old, and when your time came, no killers took your dappled coat or rendered flesh and bones
You rest beneath a desert pasture’s scanty grass, far away from the Palouse River Valley
and I remember you as a horse quite worthy of the beaded trapping you wore at your last parade.
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