Colic Haiku

Aunt Nancy is a wonderful human. She has been there for me at a lot of important times, like when I first arrived in Ohio. She drove me on the trips I made to see Uncle Jeff, and visited me everyday when I was in the hospital for my skull, and she's just really nice.

She is currently halfway across the country, taking care of all sorts of horses that have been injured, or got tummy aches while pulling the beer wagon (I overheard Mother talking to Aunt Nancy about how they had one of the Budweiser horses come in. Mother tells me Budweiser is a kind of beer. And the horse showed up in a really, really big truck. Why don't they just use that to haul the beer?) or whatever, or are just sick and need help.

During a particularly bad stretch of frequent colics and surgeries, Aunt Nancy was feeling a little stressed. I think it was a matter of sleep deprivation, since she too often works without ceasing during her "call weeks". Mother calls her all the time, I didn't know it was so stressful.

Anyway, Aunt Nancy started describing things in a most unusual fashion. She was detailing surgeries using song lyrics and definite rhymes. Mother, ever the great empathizer, came up with this:

flip, flop

Get up! Let's not

die today

I'm not really sure what to think of this.
I mean, it doesn't even rhyme.
I know Mother doesn't mean to sound cavalier.
She's just trying to stay within the constrictions of a very stylized, traditional poetry format and... and ... well whatever.
It is true. The horses I've seen colicking, the humans often seem to try to get them on their feet, especially if the horses is flailing or thrashing or flopping about.
And there's that hopeful bit, where they want the horse to live.

It still is just a little creepy.