Good Arab

Good Arab?

Some Arabs are bad, very bad; they try to kill you. Be-Bop's not like that, he just confuses the signal to canter for "run as fast as you bloody can and devil take the hindmost." Don't get me wrong, running full tilt 'cross country is a great way to spend the morning, but who's in charge? The Arab? Or some other thing? Well, it was a weird mixture this a.m., which landed Be-Bop on a lunge-line. Long, but a line none the less.

Whatever; it was neat to drive out as the sun was rising.

Just get out of town.

Tack Room

A few cups of coffee later it was time to ride on, in the beautiful cool of the morning, until 'canter' = "mad rush for the nearest non-existent exit". We'll have to practice and get it right. Until then, check out this ghost town chapel. Eerie, I always think.

On Remembrance Day the Battle Flag of the Army of North Virginia flies above this chapel. That's a heck of a thing.

Stay on the dam horse.

LSP

Hog Poem, Innit.

Photograph: Niall Benvie/Corbis

My good friend GWB, philosopher, theologian, shooter, fisherman and fowler, has been branching out into verse and turned in this number about the tuskers. With apologies to The Cause and Mr. Tate:

You know who have waited by the wall

The twilight certainty of an animal,

Those midnight restitutions of the blood

You know--the immitigable pines, the smoky frieze

Of the sky, the sudden call: you know the rage,

The cold pool left by the mounting flood,

Of muted Zeno and Parmenides.

You who have waited for the angry resolution

Of those desires that should be yours tomorrow,

You know the unimportant shrift of death

And praise the vision

And praise the arrogant circumstance

Of those who fall

Rank upon rank, hurried beyond decision--

Here by the sagging gate, stopped by the wall.

Seeing, seeing only the hogs

Flying, plunge and expire

Well, one word's original and that makes all the difference. Thanks, GWB, for the line and Mr. Tate for genius.

God bless,

LSP

PS. Go to Virtual Mirage for an amusing Cell Phone Karma video. Thanks LL.