UNBURDENING

A bronze life-size statue of a donkey and her foal stands in Guernsey's capital, St Peter Port.

The donkey is one of the national animals of Guernsey and was traditionally used as a beast of burden on the steep streets of St Peter Port.

DONKEY

He’s odd, the donkey, very odd:

thinks he’s a unicorn, the fool;

not biddable, the awkward squad

is this beast’s faction as a rule.

Odd looking too, with ragged ears

and darkly soulful, mournful eyes;

to his dishevelled coat adheres

a regiment of buzzing flies.

He stands on my side of the gate,

forelegs apart, rope tail a-sway,

suspicious of me as I wait

to see if we can meet halfway

for something in his awkward stance

reminds me of my schoolboy days:

I smile, he looks at me askance

and his grey countenance conveys

to me the loneliness and fear

that I, too, felt those years ago

when, met in playgrounds with a sneer,

or, worse, a sudden unearned blow,

I’d stand like him, unbroken, sore, 

determined to outlast them all

and, given time, equal the score.

I tell myself it is banal

to think this way. I am a man:

a donkey is a lowly beast

but man seeks solace where he can.

He stands, impassive as a priest,

and I, a penitent, in turn

speak quietly: I say my piece

remorsefully, in words that burn,

confess the worst and seek release.