One Task - Josh Tillman

Had one task

In our home

Had to draw water from the well for my father’s horse

I was the least

Among my brothers

And I would be the last among them to hold the reins

I could feel the heat

From old lightning

Before my father was awake

We’d take off riding

There was one law

At my father’s house

There’s nothing the family needs it can’t do without

The horse I loved

The old and lame

By the time its service was done he’d be twice its age

One morning in the mist

I jumped the last fence

Went farther than even he

Or the old man went

The wild dancing fire

Was snuffed out of me

That beast worked his whole life

And broke beneath me

I had one task

In our home

I had to drag a horse to the field with my father’s gun