Heroes and White Horses
Who will it be?
– the tow-headed carnival barker
leading us always to an empty tent?
– the pointy-headed tyrant
with skin as white as the frozen steppes?
– the lacquered mandarin,
with a talent for oppression?
heroes don’t communicate
through a medium that gets its name
from the sound a small bird makes
heroes don’t arrive in golf carts
heroes don’t arrive in limousine cavalcades
heroes ride in on steeds
metaphorically at least
and those steeds are trusty
that’s all, the colour doesn’t matter.
This is in response to Brendan’s prompt over at earthweal
The prompt is MODERNITY’S HERO QUEST, who will be the knight in shining armour to lead us out of this pandemic into the brave new world. I may have got the intent wrong but as Gilda Radner used to say “never mind”. Either way I encourage you to visit earthweal and take in Brendan’s informative, challenging and entertaining editorials. I know, I know, so many blogs to follow but this one is worth your while and hell, we need blogs that stretch a bit, sometimes haiku just does not cut it.
Stopdraggingthepanda 
i appreciate the sarcasm in the lines about the carnival barker, the pointy-headed tyrant and the the lacquered mandarin. And the truth in:
‘heroes ride in on steeds
metaphorically at least
and those steeds are trusty
that’s all, the colour doesn’t matter.’
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Thanks Kim…I kind of struggled with this one!
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Trust is not even in the vocabulary of our present “leaders”. (K)
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Agreed!
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A hero on a trusty steed – that’s what we need. I love those closing lines. Thanks for the plug for earthweal. It is a site that came online at exactly the moment we needed it most.
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A hero on a trusty steed – that’s what we need. I love those closing lines. Thanks for the plug for earthweal. It is a site that came online at exactly the moment we needed it most.
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Politics is the wasteland of heroics and superheroes are just masturbation fantasies — how much we have to recalibrate the optics for locating heroes these days. Trusty steeds, indeed. And thanks for kind words for the earthweal writes. – Brendan
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Western democracy as a concept or a cohesive unit is dead or dying now that the USA has abdicated its leadership role and that is very sad, The man on the white horse no longer exists, that’s what the poem started out as, but kind of got sidetracked! Thanks for reading..JIM
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More than trusty steeds , we need trusty deeds. Especially from so-called leaders.
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Now that’s what the poem should have been about!
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“If wishes were horses
then beggars would ride … ” if they need horses, we are at a loss, I fear. That may be your point after all is said and done.
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I think I’m still trying to figure out my point!
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