M.E. Hope

COW SONGS

I do not doubt that he loved the long-backed cows
more than me, and many mornings he bounded
more lithe than a calf at the chance
to be out in the barn, head pressed to flank,
as he hummed whatever tune the milk pail found.

And those days that the snow piled so deep
we had to tractor through the fields with hay
he seemed so pleased to share his girls with me
as though each was a favored child.

Nights calving, he paced farther than with any of our
own, and he could be found curled around the calf, a cow’s long
tongue washing one, and then the other, as though birthing
this man was nothing strange.

I have felt at times, the second wife, but tonight
as the sun falls, bats whir and lights appear
across the valley, he plays saxophone on the hill.
His loves lumber up from the barn, each with her own
particular sway. I move to join their parade.

–from Rattle #30, Winter 2008
Tribute to Cowboy & Western Poetry

§ One Response to “Cow Songs” by M.E. Hope

• ‘Cow Songs’ by M.E. Hope « Whale Sound says:

  June 20, 2011 at 8:22 am

  [...] M.E. Hope poem text download audio 1 min 19 [...]

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