Beauty And The Beast Poem by Chukuemeka Akpe

I.

The dressage of all these mares and stallions
Never fails to hold the world in rapt attention
Thoroughbreds in well-polished coats glisten
As they move at canters, neighing to ovations.

Fillies and Colts are reared in rarefied stables
Fawned over incessantly with hugs and kisses
They exude confidence in their nascent displays
In lush meadows with a slew of jocular trainers.

Epitome of sturdiness on technical fields
They gallop with enviable dexterity and grit
Trail of dust choking the feeble competition
They reign supreme on these fast racecourses.

Eulogies like heavy downpours rain down
Soaking the deftly executed rehearsed struts
A kaleidoscope of eyes monitor from nooks
Ribbons of verbal decorations pouring forth.

II.

The cortege of this superannuated breed rankles
Always a global audience into palpable muteness
A parody of a cavalcade with exaggerated carriage
Spurred with carrots, stumbles on in arthritic trots.

Exhibition of banalities on world parade tuned off-air
Revulsion is vomited in torrents to drown their show
Their injustices decried with tearless cries of apathy
Their cry for sympathy muted with voluble palliatives.

Foals and Ponies are ever sired in litters like kittens
Exercised early with loaded carts and jockey’s whips
They bolt away fending for self on rich garbage dumps
Dusty coats untended but open sores attended by flies.

Ever the favoured underdog for labyrinthine tracks
Their trots and gallops never able to win at a canter
They totter before a biased crowd to lingering boos
Bedraggled mane and tail drooping in capitulation.