8 seconds

by mtmynd

Posted to Action Poetry on 2002-09-08 13:58:00

Parent message is 279481
just eight seconds
twenty-five hundred pounds
of heaving beast
bucking
shifting
right to left
left to right
angry
horns sharpened
just below the face
and the riders sweat
is dwarfed by the bulls
snearing
moaning
roaring

the riders body
torn from gravity
held tightly by
one twist of rope
no touching
with the other hand
no stirrups
for the flailing feet

the neck rotating
at the whim of the bull

those seconds are now
but three…
and their bodies
war with each other
and the beast
bred and raised
for this brief interlude
tosses its rider
face down
into the dirt

victory comes to the challenge