Gaelic Gallop

This poem is from Barbara Rollins' unpublished children's book To Dingwall, Y'all set in Dingwall in the Scottish Highlands. The horses are named for historic battles in Scotland. 

Apart.
Alone.
New pony in the paddock.
Bannockburn grazes, gazes,
gauges access to the trough.
The old gelding, Stirling
kowtows to the gray mare, Carham.
Her gamey glance mocks
Bannockburn, apart.

A chequered skipper flutters,
skims his muzzle, flicks away.
Enough! Wrath raging,
Bannockburn vaults, teeth flailing,
snaring vacated molecules.
Carham rests galvanized as
Bannockburn gambols ’round Gael.
Lost youth resurges through aging veins.
Tentative steps stretch to a gallop as
bewildered Stirling lopes behind.
Gaelic ground shudders, shivers, settles
with winded horses gathered at the trough.
Bannockburn grazes, a part.