WHAT THE COWS ARE
DOING
A little bit of light
is better than no light at all.
Indoors you wouldn’t even know the light
had started; you’d be boiling water,
getting breakfast
under the overhead lights.
But out here there is the river’s incandescence.
The turf farm’s strange agriculture.
What the cows are doing,
there in your favorite pasture just west of the tollbooth.
Can you read an omen
in the cows’ formation this morning,
in whether they are massed together
or straggled out over the hillside—
or whether one, or several, are wading,
chest-deep,
in the livestock pond,
or are brownly scattered up the
drainage,
under scarce trees?
Did you catch it?
The landscape,
saying something,
here, under the
Kansas sky.
Hi Dargie! Once again, I'm delighted by the subject which is so foreign to my experience, but also very 'American.' I love the first two lines of the third stanza- about the river's incandescence, and the turf farm. That second line has just wonderful sounds and is a pleasurably bizarre statement.
ReplyDeleteAs I read the poem, I noticed little words that I personally would leave out... (the)overhead lights, out (here)there is the river's... (drop here) ....(in)whether they are massed together.....(or) whether one, or several. I also wondered about "the drainage"-- in next to last stanza. I feel it's missing a word at the end of the line. Drainage field?
In the 2nd stanza, the light--"had started"--strikes me as not quite optimum. Dawned, arrived... you can start the water boiling but does light start? I don't know.
I love 'scarce trees' and 'brownly scatterered'. They sound odd but right to my ear. I wondered about: "Did you catch it?" and played with replacing that with "Was that it?" I love the enigma of the ordinary, that your manuscript points to with every poem! Thank you!
Hi Dargie! Welcome back! I love everything about this poem -- especially the idea of reading omens in the cows' changing formations! This poem beautifully continues your exploration of a new (alien?) environment, your reading of a foreign landscape. I also love some of the things Vasiliki has mentioned: "the turf farm's (turf farm???) strange agriculture" and "brownly scattered"! I also love the sound of this line: "there in your favorite pasture just west of the tollbooth." It feels good to say that line out loud! The only thing I find somewhat problematic is the second stanza...I get a little tangled up there, though I know that you are going for a contrast of indoor/outdoor light at that hour. Maybe it can be pared down by half? so we can get to the river's incandescence and what is happening outdoors sooner? I really like "did you catch it?" I played around in my head with the title, thinking that it could be shortened to What Cows Do -- but your title is better, as you are talking about specific cows and what they are doing it NOW.
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