Plough Horse – A Poem

I deliberately chose to use the British/Australian “plough”, instead of the Americanised “plow” here. There is a weightiness to the visual of the word “plough”, I just don’t see in “plow”. I also see “dough”, “rough”, “tough”, even “ought” – and even though they don’t rhyme. They seem to me to be working words.

More of my ekphrastic poetry here.

Plough Horse

My blinders eliminate peripheral vision.
Plough ahead. Get the job done.
Pull that household weight.
Don’t stop, because the responsibility’s too great.
Deprive weeds of sun. Aerate the soil.
Enrich the earth. Keep it fertile.
No work means no food on the table.
Years of drudge, before I’m allowed to stable.
And once the row ends at the end of field, or the day,
think of the next row, and the next. My labour unpaid.

©elsp 2026

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