Life Of A Horse Poem by Saiom Shriver

the bit
the kick
the spur
the whip

branded
castrated
broken necks in horse races
while they look on bettors' faces

pulling crushing loads
in bullfights gored
dying in stable fires
hunger deaths from being ignored

driven into rivers in which they drown
falling down mountainsides
goaded to heart attack deaths
gamblers poison their insides

confined in barn stalls
smashed by Central Park cars
in wars blown apart
by cruel Bonapartes