THE LAST UNICORN

by John Field  2015

born in an era when reality

 was a memory
forgotten in the blink of an eye 

he was conceived in the womb 

of a crazy poet’s dream

then abandoned by his parents
because he didn’t look right
his tiny cloven hooves just wouldn’t do 

and something else about him
stood out in profile
which unnerved them
transcended the ordinary
and offered them little to hope for
and too much to cope with

heavy with a fading memory of home 

he felt like a lost creature
lodged in his bones
as he roamed europe’s forests

the clop clop clop
of its back-country roads
on mountains climbed slowly
and traveled easy and light
in Spain’s olive groves
before he teamed up
with a herd of wild horses
two-thirds stallion and one-third legend 

he was truly a unique experience
for mares in heat

after he died historians
notorious for not checking their facts 

declared him a myth
unworthy of even a footnote
in the books they wrote
not so! artists claimed
as they wove his likeness into tapestries

where he still grazes today

in simulated habitats of flowers
and tall meadow grasses

***