Cow Quartet

1

The Cows of Eternity

  —for Fred Zydek

In high states of pastoral grace

they pause to reverberate

the incredible news

MOOS

to sway a house,

the cry eternal as milk.

What you failed to create

bold cows oblige to contemplate:

the blank spaces between stars,

a certain light which holds

the field. Little moved

by grief or glory, unconcerned

with the twittering of birds, the cows struck

by eternity solemnly gaze

and chew.

What is guilt

if one steps on your hat?

Is it a cow dumbfounded

by our narrow universe,

or do cows astounded

even care?

2

How Cows Confuse the View

Instead of the day

tethered

to a barking dog, my window

dawns cows—the blood red and black

on white variety—reminding me of weird geography

and continental drift. Broad maps, canvas hides

stretched shoulder to tail, hang

in the day’s blue gallery.

Seven land masses stand in a meadow.

Soft, utopian eyes return my stare.

3

I Talk and the Cows Answer Me

They come close swinging

their meaningless tails.

Low trees surrender.

Wide as everywhere and always bewildered,

herded down the mudslide of history,

the cows stumble and complain.

Large rocks rumble close…

“Alright!” I shout. “That’s far enough.”

4

Why the Cows Left Home

All the cows face

toward the lower pasture

where a beautiful horse is being trained.

Laundry snaps in the wind, loud as gunfire.

The cows stare for hours, trying to understand.