Lipizzaner Horse

Lipizzaner Noble horse

Schubert plays and

Suddenly a childhood memory surfaced in my mind

I was very young, but

every years the circus came to town

all kids I could not wait

to sit up on the bleaches and be hypnotized

by the Lipizzaner Horses

Used by the Romans

for chariot races

at Circus Maximum

Today an Austrian beauty

Of yesteryears Berber dissent / ancestry

Brought to Spain by the Moors

gently trained in suave movements

of the greek school

Through Gibraltar Strait

Here returning to visit

North Africa,

Barbery birth beginning

So agile and stylish

Soft and yet steady

with short legs

Regal in every way ornate

Gallantly galloping

His head erect

and thick arched neck

Creamy white mane

Gracefully lifting it hoofs

kicking the sawdust

Transporting and balancing

The ballerina’s body

Dancing acrobatics

While circling the perimeter

of the Stage surrounded

by bleaches where I sat

as if alone and only I, each time

as only for me

Could have been Schubert

I recall my replay la la la la

Jumping my small body

round and round the dining table

till falling asleep

Drunk and dizzy

At the tables feet

A lippizaner maybe or

Dreaming I that ballerina

and the vast arid strip of land

A festive ground where the Circus lived

One again

sawdust

ornate horse

Suddenly a childhood memory surfaced in my mind. I must have been very young because it is one of my very first memories.

1767

* Conversano, a black Neapolitan stallion, is foaled, later to become the second foundation sire for the Lipizzan breed.