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Shooting Star

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Estrella
Your star shown so brightly
so briefly
a falling star that
flashed before us.
Filly dropped in the cold
in the biting wind
brought early by
a falling barometer.
Last spring your mother,
Teresa
was enticed from sheep camp
by a wild horse stud
nickering sweet nothings.
She stood,
switched her tail.
We snatched her back.
A working mare,
she bore shepherds all summer.
Her belly grew.
We found you,
brought you in,
rubbed you with towels
until your mouth grew warm.
Milked sweet colostrum
onto your tongue.
Watched your light fade
Away.
Teresa calls
A plaintive whinny,
Her bag swollen.
Her star faded
Into darkness.

Comments

Sharon, what a pretty filly she was.
We are in Maine, staying in a tiny cabin with our daughter and our border collie getting a taste of late winter as the snow melts.
Best,
Frances

That's so sad,hope everyone is doing well.

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The opinions expressed in the Western Folklife Center's Deep West online journals are those of the online journal participants and not the Western Folklife Center. The Western Folklife Center does not moderate these journals and as such does not guarantee the veracity, reliability or completeness of any information provided in the journals or in any hyperlink appearing within them.

About Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Sharon O'Toole
Pat and Sharon O’Toole are ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley near Savery, Wyoming, right on the Colorado-Wyoming border. They raise cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and children. Pat “immigrated” from Florida in 1970. He attended Colorado State University, where he met Sharon when both worked for the campus newspaper. Sharon grew up on their ranch, where they live and work with her father, their daughter, son and granddaughter (soon to be grandchildren!). Pat is a “water buffalo” and has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1986-1992), on the President’s Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, and is the current President of the Family Farm Alliance, which advocates for farmers, ranchers and irrigators. Sharon is an author, poet and journalist. She writes extensively on Western issues and is a columnist for “The Shepherd” magazine. Pat and Sharon are the parents of three children: Meghan, 27; Bridget, 26; and Eamon, 20.
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