Goat tying

What baffles me competely
Such disappointment we
Have to try to contemplate
Disgruntled that we be
America is blighted
With High School Rodeos
And clearly so much true abuse
Seen in youth that grows

Out of a belief system
That we have to try and bond
With horses and to do this
We should never abscond
From our daily duty
To abuse all animal kind
Horses goats and baby calves
And help youth to unwind

To the unfolding discovery
Which is put on display
The notorious the eye catching
The palpable that play
Into the insidious
The lurking skulking ways
That baby animals can be tortured
A conspiratorial phase

A disassociation
With abuse it must be said
Its a form of education
Misinformation led
Playacting insincerity
Disguised as something good
Perhaps its wishful thinking
But really how this could

Ever be seen as positive
Its beguiling all who pay
Its really disengenuousness
Concocted all the way
Duping youth with such abuse
Misrepresenting skills
For me turgid and tasteless
Where blood and torture spills

Out into the open air
Where the voiceless have no say
The drama known as rodeo
Acted out each day
To those who are unwilling
Who hesitate to tread
Goats tethered to ropes
And then manhandled
Which has led

To injuries and broken bones
And bruises everywhere
Calling for endurance
And fortitude aware
Of there being no alternative
For it has been decreed
Animals are up for it
And riders must succeed

Some see it as commendable
Others as a shame
Praiseworthy and essential
All part of the game
Wicked and iniquitous
Troublous as a whole
To pit ones strength
At victims
And to go to say that
Is the goal

To beat them into submission
This the gravity
Of expression and true consequence
The linchpin actually
The usefulness the skillset
The virtue of it all
For me its just obnoxious
And too close to call

Shoddy and pathetic
Throwbacks to the past
Creating many victims
And those who stand aghast
Tethered tied and waiting
To be thrown about the place
To be engaged in forlorn hope
Which just is a disgrace

Elegance and deftness
Proficiency and style
Accomplishment and bonding
It is off the dial
Horsemanship and aptness
At variance with care
Everything is a challenge
For all the riders there

Expecting submissiveness
Fatalism they
be forever yielding
Just have to give way
Have all fight knocked out of them
Throw down their legs and cry
Eat the dirt around them
And so much humble pie

Out in the arena
The theatre of war
Fighting for the trophy
The honours all adore
Forget the continual struggle
And the adversity
The doom and gloom and agony
And the misery

Goat tying barrel jumping
Pole bending and the rest
Team roping
We are hoping
Tying legs to test
The skill of would be ropers
The lariot brigade
Who scuff and scrape
The living flesh
Unseen by the parade

What I feel is so abusive
The rigidity
Callousness and pitilessness
And true depravity
Coercion and arm twisting
Under duress all the while
Expecting acquiescence
And a dedicated guile