Manes
Come hear the Boer’s hooves.
This cavalry canters on, turns
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the corner as might a flood
of urgent salmon. Headstrong
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they take to tarmac like Tyne,
surfacing not to breed
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but to breathe, wearing pocked
sequinned skins. This battery
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of bodies is a foggy glue-sniff.
Horses who made light of guns,
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carried the living, ferried
them home. Nothing but death
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could stop these steeds
in their steels. Horseflesh ridden,
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shot at, eaten. And yet, not a soul
of them have names here
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as men do, in stone. Let me mend
this poor husbandry:
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come here filly, tell me your name,
I’ve a handful of hay.
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Note: In Roman mythology manes are the souls of dead ancestors, worshipped as beneficent spirits. Haymarket’s ‘Winged Victory’ commemorates the men in Northumbrian regiments who lost their lives during the Second Boer War (1899-1902). An estimated 300,000 horses also died in British service.
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Joanne Clement is a poet and doctoral candidate at Newcastle University, where she investigates Thomas Bewick’s tale-piece prints. The ekphrastic study was awarded a Northern Bridge studentship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. In 2012 Joanne became the recipient of a Northern Promise Award from New Writing North.