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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AFTER IKKYU: 51 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: A LOVELY WOMAN IN MINNESOTA OWNED A 100-YEAR-OLD HORSE
Last Line: THINGS BECAUSE I'M JIM, AT THE RIGHT PLACE, THE RIGHT TIME.

A lovely woman in Minnesota owned a 100-year-old horse,
actually thirty-seven, but in horse years that's at least 100.
In the third grade I read there were eleven surviving
Civil War veterans. Under the photo captions it said
they were mostly drummer boys. Now both
horse and veterans are dead, the woman married, rid
of her binding sweetheart horse. I know these peculiar
things because I'm Jim, at the right place, the right time.



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