The Year of the Fire Horse

 

A lantern set of horses during a lantern show in Nanjing in eastern China's Jiangsu province. During the Lunar New Year of the Fire Horse, lanterns are used to symbolize good fortune, vitality, and to honor the zodiac animal.

Feature China/Future Publishing, Getty Images

"According to Lee ( Jonathan H. X. Lee, Asian studies professor at San Francisco State University), this (reverence for horses) is exemplified by the Chinese idiom: When the horse arrives, success arrives. “The horse’s energy is associated with yang energy, which is active, dynamic, and life-generating, and speaks to ambition and vitality.” 

In Chinese astrology, Horse years favor decisive action and independence, while also warning against impulsiveness."

I am not one for the zodiac, but it turns out, the fire horse is my birth year, and is this year, too. With National Geographic as the source I considered the implications of this double dose in this series of haikus.

Let me gallop toward

the work; I've got a spreadsheet

and some snacks to share.

These wings are tired,

it's true. But I think I can

ignite our shared flames.

That lullaby? It

never worked on me. I was

too busy planning.

Yang energy? Ha!!!

My fuel is Diet Coke and

a new post-it pad.

Do horses sleep? Of

course! How else can they make so

many decisions?

Source article: Nat Geo on the year of the Fire Horse