We Were Tomboys

We were almost sisters Played horses together Spent hours building inch-wide creeks for our plastic horses to wade through Shared a dream of marrying ranchers in Montana Two handsome Marlboro men We’d be neighbors – of course When we tired of that or making tiny leather saddles out of scraps and glue it was back to our real ponies White and brown devilish tricksters Thunder leaned into trees when we charged through the woods scraping my skin on the rough bark Dusty had that habit of coming to a dead stop right in front of a mud puddle You, bareback as usual, sailing over her head We trained their short legs to jump foot high hurdles on the pine needle-coated path behind the house No Lipizzaner stallion was as fine as a Shetland pony when it took its rider into the sky Our ponies were animistic “Tut, tut, looks like rain“ It seemed to be Thunder’s thought when he raised his head to the sky That inside joke of ours was hysterically funny for years I wonder Did these joyful moments of girlhood stay alive in your memory too? In memory of Nancy, 1954-2006