Eight Belles

Joy fell to sadness,
you gave your best to us, yet
the bells tolled for thee.

Note: I cannot stop the flow of tears.. At Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby, Eight Belles came in 2nd place after Big Brown and, as she galloped out she fell, having broken both her front ankles, and was euthanized on the spot. Rest in peace Eight Belles and keep Barbaro company.

Janet Leigh

Glenn Buttkus wrote:

It does amaze me how much emotion we can feel when animals we love die, or are killed. Humans are funny that way. Sometimes we weep more as we have to put our pets down that if one of our family passes away. The emotional bond between man and many animals is one of the finest things about our species. I have always been a sucker for movies and books about dogs and horses; the examples are legion. Your poem, TAMER, that I put on my blog site last week is a fine example of the emotion surfed up with just the memory of an animals being cruelly dealt with. Thinking about how much a horse will give of its heart and soul, running for us, for its rider, for its owner, for itself–it has always fascinated me. Even horse that are healing up, or old and lame; when the blood is up, and the others are running, the trumpets are pealing, the crowd is yelling, and their hooves get itchy to race, to gallop, to move like impalas, to try for the moment of glory. I love your haiku, Janet. It is perfect example of terrific information and intense emotion, packed in perfectly in just those few lines.

Black Beauty always
made me weep as I read about
or watched him suffer.

Every time Old Yeller died,
I cried, for I loved that big
yellow mutt so much.

Glenn