Alone in my house,

being enclosed by the fog --


A cow is mooing.

He sniffs, grazing
he comes closer
Only the birds watch

Warm breath explores
the skin of my desire
I smell what it does to him

Carefully he licks me
I let go of the world
My body trembles

in my consciousness, nameless
in his eyes, this is real
Not romance

Discontent: standing

like a cow in driving rain --


your *** to the wind.

In one of
my many
lifetimes, when
I was a child,
my dad had a
sprawling stretch
of land in
Missouri.
He had 200
head of cattle.
We used to run
the cows we
bought at auction
through this
shoot with wooden
beams that closed
on their necks.
My stepmom took
this gun-like object
and put an orange
tag in their ear.

My brother and I used
to play with this black and
white steer.
We called him old #56
because of the number on
his tag.
We chased him, and then he
chased us.
I felt bad for
him, the tag in
his ear.
I talked to my
dad about it.
He said if the steer
ever got lost,
we could find him.
I felt good about that.
I didn't want to lose him.

One night
the following summer,
we were sitting down for
dinner.
I hadn't seen
old #56 for a while.
I asked Dad where
he was.
He didn't say anything.
We were having
t-bone steaks.

As I write this,
my black and white
kitten, Bukowski,
bites at the pen and
tries to wrestle my
wrist as it moves across
the paper.
I'm glad that he
isn't a steer.

The cow looks beyond,

maybe at the evening light --


mirrored in her eye.

I suspect a cow

in the meadow at night, there --


the black spots that move.

Like a precious stone

in the landscape of her skin:


the eye of the cow.

How to slice you chickens? asked the cow.
My hooves can't hold the knife...
******* all their fun or their sorrows?
My blade won't fit my grip...
These hooves, useless to our need!
You turned me into a sloppy cow!

I fatten the cow
And drink her milk
To wash down
Her baby's flesh
And she loves me even now
As I squeeze her *******
Her milk allows
It feels like silk
Because I fattened the cow
To drink her milk

Cows graze in the grass
Caterpillars eat leaves
Humans ate the whole world
Turning God’s oasis into a feast