Black Cows at Night
Last night after working late preparing for market
I lay in bed restless the moon was full yet the wind had picked up
The moon tucked its lazy head behind a cloud
An eerie pressure pervaded as a storm was brewing
Light flashed in the distant sky, far off rumbling echoed
Then I remembered that a cow was close to calving
She should be checked and I had forgotten
I arose and dressed and went out into the night
Birth seems to occur at times like this
As does death as well
The crack between the worlds open
Some enter while some others must leave
Wandering into this night I entered the cow pasture
The light of the moon had been switched off
I was on my own in the darkness
The only working head lamp I could find, worked only in the low setting
Illumination escaped me
Finding a black cow calving in the middle of the night
It’s peers spread evenly out through ten acres
She did not make herself obviously known liking not to be interfered
Braying for her missing calf however a Line-back Cow was distressed
We had taken her calf off of her for the locker
She had given birth in early January in the dense cold and nursed it through spring
Not yet ready to let her bull calf go she cried piercingly into the night
Change we find difficult
Though the universal constant we fight it tooth and nail
Death always resides on our left shoulder
No wonder our heads tilt off to the right
Forces beyond our control often usurp our plans
Traversing into the night looking at the backs of black cows
Birthing fluid comes out red
Warning of danger and what might lie ahead
I left the night to the black cows
Fate would find its way till the morning
Back in bed the ghost of sleep took me
In the morning I would return and find the little one doing fine
