Gee-Gees Were Horses ...

Gee-gees were horses, ta-ta her first word

for her dark faeces, when through hay and heather

toddling, we stopped to see, as dry as leather,

a heap of lumps, a hummock of horse turd;

and, Da? she questioned, who had only heard

meaningless names till then—when like a feather

a thought struck and I put her words together,

not once daring to hope for what occurred:

she stood there, silent, puzzled, open-eyed,

as if I'd handed her some shiny token,

then, Gee-gee ta-ta . . . gee-gee ta-ta! cried,

as if a shell surrounding her had broken,

and shouted still, till all the hills replied—

till the dark hills surrounding us had spoken.

Richard Moore

From Word from the Hills, A Sonnet Sequence in Four
Movements, University of Georgia Press, © 1972.
Reprinted by permission of the author.