Produced by Dennis Camire

This week’s poem is by Ed Reilly, who taught for over 30 years at St. Joseph’s College in Windham.

 

A COW’S TONGUE

By Ed Reilly

 

A cow’s tongue is like sandpaper on

a hand, scraping across it to draw a fist

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of oats, kernels of corn, into its mouth.

 

Across its calf, though, the tongue cleans,

soothes, expresses what might pass

for love if we could discern cow emotion.

 

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The long, harsh tongue slides down

the calf’s neck, across its shoulder, toward

its thin, ungainly leg, wetting, curling hair

 

in one assertive, reassuring thrust

of what a mother, this heavy, awkward,

black and white beast, can offer.

 

Dennis Camire can be reached at dcamire@cmcc.edu