Strange how we’re like shire horses, so much in

common with our fellow beasts of burden.

The story goes that shire horses, pulling

brewery drays, learn their routes, learn their stops.

More than that, they remember the order

the routes go, according to the week days.

On Tuesdays after a bank holiday,

the Shires would try following Monday’s route.

The horses have a mental map, they know

the order the routes should go in, each week.

Thus shires know the day of the week, can count

them, and think ahead, to which day comes next.

Maybe we are asking too little of

our cousins, who are more than horse power.

Perhaps they are unfulfilled, frustrated,

dissatisfied, conditioned as passive.

By extension, then, we are asking too

little of each other; the human race.

People will attend a work place daily,

for a set duration, week after week.

Whilst there, they will complete simple tasks, have

their conduct and capability judged.

Humans will organise their whole lives, just

for the opportunity to do this.

Entire families run to this clock; whole

communities follow this daily creed.

None of us will ever have been told, in

so many words, that we must live this way.

But we do, copying parents, peers, the

subliminal suggestions of our world.

Obedient, willing, we comply with this

mandate, sold the story that we’ll succeed.

Undervalued, unable to follow

our dreams and desires, we are unfulfilled.

We’re asking too little of the human

race; each of us has so much to offer.