Nimrod Brings Tears
[It's here - the Interspecies Black Beauty Ballet]
Within this simply converted barn, the vulnerable animal natures of audience and human actors meld with that of the animals. The story of Black Beauty does not cast humans in a shining light. At its most poignant, the two equine stars - Ginger and Black Beauty - contemplate their fates as a horse buyer seals a deal for Black Beauty, leaving Ginger to her fate. The lighting is dimmed and Elgar’s Nimrod plays as we sense night falling …
We’re voyeurs here – observe the narrow confines of the stall
let Nimrod touch the scars you’d rather not recall
absorb the resignation – human contact here is led
by questions in the boardroom (we can guess the thread)
of reputation, money and the virtual price of horse
and as for care? The very best (at the cheapest cost of course.)
But look! A dog rests, still, upon each horse’s back
we see a shared connection and despite the lack of
common coat, or language, species, age or size
the mutual need for freedom, space and comfort pricks our eyes…
I watch in awe
this twilight scene has me in tears
and - I'm saddened to admit -
wet cheeks and Nimrod
help me to remember it.
Even today I can’t hear Nimrod without being transported back to that scene. But it is not all gloom. For one of the dogs takes the rope securing Black Beauty and frees him!
We race towards a finale which sees Marthe cantering and dancing with all the eloquence of dressage without constraints of bit and bridle.
It’s over. We did it.
The Colloquium feels like the beginning of a return to words and more words. I’m slightly dreading hours of speakers – most of them highly qualified academics in their fields – speaking about agriculture, ecocentric ways of farming, sustainability climate and all the looming priorities the earth and her beings face.
But I am utterly surprised. They seem to have a way of presenting that is more a ‘restorying’ rather than dry lecturing. I’m absorbed by new views of what it means to ‘farm’ sustainably. Their views are drawn, first and foremost, from direct engagement with the land and non-human beings themselves.
One is an expert in the behaviours and rearing of chickens, a fowl I have just come to love.
We adjourn in dribs and drabs after The Colloquium, each of us changed individually, irreparably.
It is time to go home, although our bird of choice can barely fly further than a treetop.
But we have wings. Not only has our creative muse gained flight, but the chains of a childhood fear have been removed.
#ballet #interspecies #communication #poetry