Poem

I hear painful raspy coughing,
and the heavy breathing loud,
As I walk down in the paddocks
I stop and stare in shock.

For no horses race and play,
or fight over the tossed hay.
The feed in my bucket rattles
but there is no answer at the gate.

the horses with there heads way down,
as in asleep,
an unnatural silence falls on the place,
we weep we cry we wait I fearfor them to rise,
wake up, and run and play again.

I walk from field to stable,
and enterhell it seems to me.
I walk slowly down the aisle,
the coughs they carry on.

I hear a thud I look in a stall,
look in, so forlorn.
A mare is down, a foal so still,
this is not right at all.
It will not stop,it will rest,
EI will take them all.

Henry.