White Horses Poem by Steffi Webster

Through the rolling thunder and lightning flash,
The ship was tossed with a mighty crash,
The pounding waves attacked again
The storm was showing no refrain
Through the bedlam came a terrified call
In the hold a horse reared up tall
It was a stallion of purest white
He would never give up the fight
His hooves beat his stall with ultimate fury
His eyes shone with freedom and glory
His mares, white also, whinnied afraid
He broke out and wildly neighed
The storm, relentless, struck one last time
Now vivacious in its prime
The waves swept up and over the boat
It started to sink it could not float
The horses burst out, onto the deck
The water swirled right up to their neck
With a final lurch they were flung to the sea
Their spirits still fighting, wild and free
But even strong spirits couldn’t keep them alive
The horses were finding it hard to survive
One by one they sank like stones
Exhaustion eating through their bones
Soon there was only one fighting hard
Swimming achingly, yard after yard
It was the stallion, still ever white
Fighting the waves all through the night
Till he too could fight no more
How he longed for the sight of shore
Before he resigned himself to the deep
As through his coat the cold did seep
He summoned his spirit in one thundering neigh
Then he felt his life slip away
The storm’s spirit was still raging through
The ship had gone, and so had the crew
The stallion’s spirit, so strong, could not die
It had entered the air in his final cry
The cry filled with anguish, freedom, despair
As he sank from sight still calling his mares
The two spirits mingled, joined as one force
Soared under the water and into the horse
Life was created deep in the swell
And the horses rose from their watery hell
So now when storm waves roll high as the sky
You can still hear the stallion’s haunting cry
On the crest of the waves his mares now race
Still full of beauty, white coated grace
Bugling thunder calls right at their head
It’s the wild and free stallion back from the dead.