Cow skips. Cow farts. Cow receives the semen of a prize bull. Cow says fuck this. Cow
takes a walk. Out of the barn, out of the farm, onto a residential street and comes
across a city. Cow can’t imagine. Cow can’t imagine there’s a place like this.
Cow walks [she will learn to skip later, but it all takes time, sorry I skipped ahead in the
last stanza]. Cow keeps walking. The grass is grey and hard here. She is feeling
hungry. And you, who are calf, walk beside her. And you – this poor cow’s child – walk
beside her.
Calf and cow walk into a car park, and through the doors of a popular brand
supermarket. Cow and calf [that is you] wonder why there are so many farmers here
and so few cows.
You cry, you are hungry. Mother cow knows this cry. Knows you are hungry. Cow stops
to let you feed. Cow nurse cow tender cow kind cow. Cow stops in the middle of the
dairy isle and lets calf feed.
You drink your mother’s milk and stare at cartoon cows on cartons.
But you don’t know what a cartoon or a carton is.
[copies of COW are available via the OSMOSIS shop]
Carolyn Hashimoto
Carolyn Hashimoto is a writer, visual artist and editor based in Dumfries and Galloway. She is the founder of Skirting Around – an online journal which explores the politics and emotions of women’s clothing through writing and art. Her visual poetry collection The Chips are Down Here in Lockdown was published by OrangeApple Press in 2021. Other work has appeared in Interview Room 11’s Four Letter Word Project, Gutter, 3AM Magazine, Tentacular, BlueHouse Journal and -algia.
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