The Calves Not Chosen
By Linda Gregg
The mind goes caw, caw, caw, caw,
dark and fast. The orphan heart
cries out, “Save me. Purchase me
as the sun makes the fruit ripe.
I am one with them and cannot feed
on winter dawns.” The black birds
are wrangling in the fields
and have no kindness, all sinew
and stick bones. Both male and female.
Their eyes are careless of cold and rain,
of both day and night. They love nothing
and are murderous with each other.
All things of the world are bowing
or being taken away. Only a few calves
will be chosen, the rest sold for meat.
The sound of the wind grows bigger
than the tree it’s in, lessens only
to increase. Haw, haw the crows call,
awake or asleep, in white, in black.
Linda Gregg, "The Calves Not Chosen" from All of it Singing: New & Selected Poems. Copyright © 2008 by Linda Gregg. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.
Source:
All of it Singing: New & Selected Poems
(Graywolf Press, 2008)
