For Bobby
Written & Contributed
By
Sharon Liles Barnes
The day you were born,
who could have known,
What a champion you'd be before fully grown,
The lives you would touch, the joy and hope,
So much to come from just one little colt.
A long time had passed
since attention I'd paid,
To riders and steeds on each Derby day,
I heard you had won, even trained near my home,
It seemed there and then, you became all my own.
I remembered another,
a little like you,
A Triple Crown Winner, and somehow I knew,
That you'd do the same, it was all in your heart,
Present from birth, right from the start.
I was away when you ran
your next race,
And when I asked hubby, he looked past my face,
He said you were hurt but that I shouldn't worry,
It wasn't too serious, you'd heal in a hurry.
I could tell by his voice
it was worse than he said,
So I searched for news with fearing and dread.
It was much worse, more than hearts could bear,
Where's the reason, the justice? It just wasn't fair!
So I cried and I prayed,
and hoped for the best,
I did all I could and gave God the rest,
I knew from the start how bad it could be,
I prayed for a miracle, one we could see.
All down that journey,
with its hope and despair,
You were never alone, I always was there,
The more that I saw you, the more that I cared,
The more that I prayed, the more hope that I dared.
We needed a hero, and
you were the one,
To cast out the rain and bring out the sun,
With wars and sorrows abounding each day,
Death just couldn't take you, you just had to stay.
For a while there was
joy, it seemed it would last,
And finally one day, you went out and grazed grass,
You healed so well, you might even go home,
And enjoy life, sire daughters and sons.
But fate has a way of
turning the tables,
A new crisis came - it was back to the stable,
Where you'd fought for so long with courage so rare,
If we lost you now, it'd be too much to bear.
What I dreaded most,
finally did come to pass,
The day had come that would be your last.
The pain was too great, it wouldn't be fair,
To make you keep trying, to still keep you here.
As before you, so many,
so young and so bright,
Your life had ended, lost was the fight,
The hardest to reason, life's toughest lesson,
Why take the young, when they're such a blessing?
Your stable was empty,
but our hearts much more so,
For you had gone where we couldn't go,
The life unfinished, the races not run,
The hopes, the dreams, all shattered, not won.
We grieved and we mourned,
we just couldn't part,
With our Bobby who held such a place in our heart,
How hard it is, such a sorrow to handle,
When fate has abruptly blown out the candle.
I mourned and I cried,
many tears I still shed,
But then resigned reason came back to my head,
Sweet Bobby passed through, like each living thing,
For a purpose, a reason, a hope to bring.
The time since you left
we measure in days,
Your memory lingers, and our love still stays,
How could you have known the good you had done,
Your life shining brightly, eclipsing the sun.
Through all your misfortune,
hardship and pain,
Your life took new meaning, there's new hope to gain,
A legacy hopeful old evils will end,
In time, no horse suffering, ever again.
And so we go on, with
love in our hearts,
Your life and ours, never far or apart,
Even death could not take the race you had run,
Not just for the roses, but the grace you had won.
