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.
This article appears in Radioland.