Barbaro

Before his career as a champion racehorse, and his death following a devastating injury, Barbaro was a colt like any other. In her traditional poetic style, Lifshin outlines the life of the champion horse before his fame, highlighting the beauty and grace of the young colt from his birth, through his youth, and finally to his time as a champion on the track. The artistic rendering of Barbaro’s life from his early years to his first races culminate in the celebration of his life after his death in this poetry collection.

from “Those Nights in the Stall”

did Barbaro dream

horses galloping?

In the dark, starless,

did he feel the

ground shaking?

Imagine the sound

of hooves on turf?

Was there some

thing in the wind?

The scent of horses

thundering past the

barn, of flying

manes, the beating

of his own heart,

louder than hooves?