Inktober 2021
Animals We Believe In
A submission for the prompt “extinct”
Published in
Oct 25, 2021
They drove from the city to rural Virginia
watching cows behind old fences
singing Farmer and the Dell
and Old MacDonald to while
away the hours on the road.
And Mike called out, “What’s that thing?”
They all looked, trying to find what he saw
in the fields, behind trees, in the wide-open spaces
“You mean the horse?” Dad asked, confused.
“No, the thing that looks like a horse!”
And what followed after was an hour-long
discussion of what animals were real
and which were made up.
Because somehow, in all the years of school
and a fairly large adventurous streak
the family had failed to teach their eight year old
that horses do exist.
