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Birth Day 

We exited 101 at Janes Road

where the cow pasture is on your right,

several cars on the edge of the pasture,

the cow lying on her side, black-and-white

in the green grass and the bishop's lace.

 

Local people were watching, like tourists,

something resembling an extra-terrestrial

coming out of her body and baffled at the light.

 

It happens all of the time

to cows, dogs, elephants, and people,

but still it intrigues and puzzles us:

How can one being produce another one?

Where does the new one come from?

 

Yet maybe the greatest fascination it has for us

is that we perform this sleight-of-body trick

in common with so many, and such different,

animals: pangolins, raccoons, whales, guppies,

even some sharks. Maybe we fit into the world

more closely than we ever imagined.

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