Small Victory (Garnet Rogers) You've no business buying a mare like that But buy her if you must He bit the end off his cigar And spat it in the dust She's old, she's lame and barren too She's not worth feeding hay But I'll give her this, he blew smoke at me, She was something in her day. I recall her well 10 years ago She was a winner in her prime She was fast and lean and willing But they raced her past her time And though she had the heart Her legs were gone It wasn't see hard to see But they kept her at it in the hopes Of one more small victory She was shunted round from track to track From Kentucky up to Maine They'd run her in cheap claimers All doped up to mask her pain And if its my advice you want I'd say The poor things had her day You'd be thowing good cash after bad Its best, he turned away Oh they led her round the auction shed And bidding started low She'll go for dogfood someone said The markets been that slow But she raised her head and pricked her ears And before the hammer fell She's was mine My friend turned round to me You're softheaded I can tell But she'd been shoved from pillar to post said I And always done her best They used her up they rung her dry You'd think she earned her rest So if she does not bode out her day Beneath some shady tree I'll have saved her from the knacker's yard And that's enough for me Oh that was near two years ago She's filled out some since then And more so since she's been in foal She eats enough for ten And this morn as I crept to the barn Around 'bout half past three There stood nursing on still trembling legs One more "small victory". XX apr00
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!