When asked to choose a word to take me through this new year. I chose the word Hope. I have never forgotten the story of Hope, the Donkey who is wonderfully featured in Dr. Svendsen's video,"40 Years On". I have to admit that when I saw her walking toward Dr. Svenden's son I got quite emotional. I know I will not get to meet her for Donkey Week when I am there, but I send this poem to her and the Sanctuary staff in Spain who do such a wonderful job. With all the recent cruelty stories coming from Spain toward Donkeys, this poem is also a plea and a call to turn towards the good.

Hope Is A Donkey

Hope is a Donkey
Who lives in Spain
Who began her life
With trauma and pain
A vandal's knife
Paring off her ears
No ear speak for her
All of these years.
But her eyes and her heart
Transcend and transcribe
The fear, discovering each day
A loving hand near.
Donkey thoughts transmuted
Through wandering equine language
Learning to take words in
Through her eyes
And kindness through touch
She has much yet to gain
Living in Sanctuary, in Spain.
Spain puzzles me so
Through its beauty, yet cruel
Acts toward Donkeys...
Though I am not naive
I know Spain cannot be
A land full of "Dapples"
With loving Sancho Panzas from
Fabled Don Quixote.
But why not conquer the past
With a future of Hope!
Who's moment of pain may yet still
Backwash and echo in her head,
Yet she knows finally reassured
That chance and not death
Drops her name in silent corridors
Of deciphered love, not regret.
Hope is a Donkey
And though she is old
It's a testament to her story
That her life is worth, to some,
Ever so much more than Spanish gold.