It was a cold fall farm morning<\/p>\n
the kind where<\/p>\n
you see everyone’s last breath<\/p>\n
the cow in the barn<\/p>\n
pulled up from the straw<\/p>\n
by the nose,<\/p>\n
the steam rising up and disappearing<\/p>\n
god knows where.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was 9 or 10 years old<\/p>\n
enthralled by Mr. Sparling’s<\/p>\n
Popeye like forearms and dark beard<\/p>\n
watching as he<\/p>\n
put a bullet into the cow,<\/p>\n
the cow just standing there<\/p>\n
screaming, screaming<\/p>\n
like cows scream.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr. Sparling slowly walking over to<\/p>\n
the barn door<\/p>\n
like this wasn’t the first time<\/p>\n
nor the last<\/p>\n
walking back with an axe<\/p>\n
in his right hand<\/p>\n
then lifting it and smacking it<\/p>\n
backside up into<\/p>\n
the cow’s forehead,<\/p>\n
the cow kneeling down and<\/p>\n
with a few more Viking style whacks<\/p>\n
rolling over silent .<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now many years and many deaths later<\/p>\n
thinking of this<\/p>\n
of Layton’s bull calf too<\/p>\n
thinking of<\/p>\n
my own time and space<\/p>\n
and that<\/p>\n
there are no winners.<\/p>\n
Go ask Cesar.<\/p>\n
Go ask Marilyn.<\/p>\n
Go ask a card dealer.<\/p>\n
Go ask a grave digger.<\/p>\n
Go ask a good poet.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tonight when I watch<\/p>\n
the news<\/p>\n
the body bags, the car wrecks,<\/p>\n
the heavy eye shadow<\/p>\n
on the newscaster,<\/p>\n
when I watch all that<\/p>\n
like Li Po<\/p>\n
I’ll drink my wine<\/p>\n
and laugh from the belly<\/p>\n
and dream of my<\/p>\n
pink row boat in the sky.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was a cold fall farm morning the kind where you see everyone’s last breath the cow in the barn pulled up from the straw by the nose, the steam rising up and disappearing god knows where. I was 9 or 10 years old enthralled by Mr. Sparling’s Popeye like forearms and dark beard … Continue reading Ask A Poet<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":803,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddeubel.me\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}