Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky, Russian
“Yeah, I Was Thinking of Having a Reindeer Pull My Sleigh Instead, But Who Wants To Deal With All That FAA Paperwork?,” 1940
Oil on canvas
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/// Nikolai paints a small Winter Sleigh
With (six) Children who wait there and say.
“This sleigh’s hitched much too near
to that large horse’s rear.
Has he gone Number Two yet, today?”
/// The alternative’s tiring and slow;
skip the sleigh and walk home through deep snow.
Yet they all hesitate,
for the view isn’t great,
and the thought of manure whispers “Whoa!”
/// As a fix for their confidence lack,
the sleigh driver came up with a “hack.”
Ivan earned extra tips
just by making two trips
with three kids riding on the beast’s back.
/// While his sleigh across chunks of ice rumbles,
to the children on board Ivan mumbles:
“Keep yourselves strapped in tight,
there’s a chance my horse might
need that bright red roll–bar, if he stumbles.”
/// Kids decline to get onto the sled.
They stand meekly beside it instead.
Once that horse used to race;
now he’s frozen in place.
A few children suspect it is dead.