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Overview
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781680032888 |
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Publisher: | Texas Review Press |
Publication date: | 08/26/2022 |
Edition description: | 2 |
Pages: | 128 |
Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
from “With Blue Green Grass Holding Kentucky Night Water” at 9:50 April 17 she was there, suddenly, dark and slick as she would be on her last night. Ruffian, with a star on her forehead, pale buds outside the stall door. She was lying beside her mother on the straw. Her mare, Shenanigans, still sweaty from the birth though it took less than half an hour. The filly, all long skinny legs, awkward, bent, too long it seemed for the little body, licorice but when wiped down, a dark chocolate with a few grey hairs and behind one left leg, a white band, a white bracelet to go with the star she’d be
Table of Contents
Black Horses in Dreams (Before Ruffian)
When I Think of the Horses Kept in the Dark of Mines 1
Horses in the Snow 1
The Blue Horse Puzzle 2
Morgan Horse Farm 3
Sleeping with Horses 3
The Horse I Never Had 4
The Horse Lullabies, The Insomnia 5
The Young Girl Dreams of Escape 6
Small and New in the Lamp of Her Mother's Eye (Ruffian's Birth)
With Blue Green Grass Holding Kentucky Night Water 8
Right After Birth 8
First Day in the Light 9
April 1972 10
That First Summer 10
The Last Days in the Pasture, After the Hottest Days of Summer 11
Just Before Weaning Day 11
Taken, Picked Like Unripe Fruit (Weaning Ruffian)
Early, with Only Lanterns of Light 14
Weaning Day-1 14
With Starlight Still on the Pond Like Silver 15
Weaning Day-2 16
Weaning Day-3 16
In Their New Stalls 17
Now the Pastures are Empty 17
Ruffian's Last Weanling Month 18
Ruffian, If I had Seen You at the Fence 18
As with Dancers the More Confident Fillies were in Front (Ruffian as a Yearling)
To Start, They 20
Like Ballet Warm Up at the Barre 20
By the Time the Horses File Around the Paddock 21
For Ruffian, a Squeal, a Few Bucks 22
After Days of Figure Eights in the Stall 22
Her Beautiful Thin Strong Legs 23
Some Nights I Think of Her 24
Sky Colorless 24
Yearlings in the Pasture 25
She Was Good To Be Around (Ruffian as a Two-Year-Old)
It was Her Stride, Long, Almost Dream Like, Floating 28
Before She Had Her Name 28
When I Look at Ryder's Painting, the Race Track 29
Ruffian's Maiden Race 29
Just Before Ruffian's Maiden Race 30
Ruffian, Her First Race 30
That First Race in Black and White 31
She was Transformed 32
Sometimes it Seemed She Wasn't Real 32
Horse Tattoo 33
One Blacksmith said He Gould Pick Up an Anvil with One Hand 33
You Can't Think Ahead 34
Saratoga, Ruffian's Cradle 34
Other Horses Turned to Jelly When She Looked Them in the Eye (Ruffian as a Three-Year-Old)
Recovery, After Ruffian's Hairline Fracture 38
In Camden, Ruffian Tossing 39
By March Ruffian 39
Ruffian 40
Spring of Ponds Near 41
I Don't Never Like to Stay Too Far Away from Ruffian-1 42
I Don't Never Like to Stay Too Far Away from Ruffian-2 42
After Angel Cordero Tried to Tire Out Ruffian, Exhaust Her Early 43
I Never Like to Stay Too Far Away from Ruffian-3 44
Ruffian in the Winner's Circle 44
What's Next 44
When there was Nothing Left for Her to Prove 45
In the Blue Pewter Air 46
She Wanted to Run, a Fast Dance 46
That Last Spring Ruffian was Ghostly 47
She was The Wonder. The Big Filly 47
An Onyx Bundle of Energy 48
It Always Ends the Same Way 49
On the Day of Ruffian's Match Race 50
Darkness Croons to Her Daughter (Ruffian's Death)
On the Day of Her Last Race 52
On That Day 53
July 6, 1975, That Day, Only Ruffian 53
When the Ambulance Came 54
After She Pulled Up, After the Blood was Drying on July 55
After the Accident 55
She was Jumping Around 56
Her Jockey Moved in a Blur 56
After the Ambulance Ride Ruffian Bled So Inside the Cast the Cast Broke from the Pressure 57
As Ruffian Slept 58
When I Think of the Recovery Stall 59
Maybe Because She was Born Three Days Late 59
After She Broke Through 60
As If She was a Piece of Sky 61
After Midnight 61
Years Before Earth Beetles Have Made Lace of Her Lovely Bones 62
Though She Didn't Run for the Roses 62
Her Whole Body was Buried 63
July 7, 1975-1 64
She was Buried Just as the Last Light 64
July 7, 1975-2 65
Rain, the Cherry Petals Going Pale Rose Snow 66
Like Nothing We'll See Again (After Ruffian)
Her Jockey's Song 70
Shattered, The Licorice Daughter 71
When I Think of the Jewish Mourning Custom 72
Ruffian, Whole and Gorgeous in Photographs 73
Watching That Horse, as Her Trainer Always Called Her, on Tape 74
Another Horse Would Have Become Dog Food 74
With the Craze to Keep Something of Ruffian, Even Her Brother Icecapade's Photo 75
Early Mornings at the Track, The Grass Rhinestoned, Luminous 75
She Ran Like a Fawn 76
She Was a Dancer 76
Now Ruffian is Nibbling Apples from a Tree They Never Shrivel or Drop From 77
In the Photographs on the Mantel 78
Acknowledgments 80