a taste of ‘Cow’

71 writers get bovine …

scroll down for tastes …

The platform, raw and sooty, / rumbles like my nerves. from Tales of the Prodigal Son by John Grey

Most people (not ranchers) if you ask / for a memory of cows, will smile. from Apologetic Cows by Joe Cottonwood

Stillness is the moment of waiting / when the world hangs between two horns from Stillness by Stephanie Russell

Donny wiped his sleeve across his face and picked the little heifer back up. from The Calf by Gail Sosinsky

Even the cow looked bored to me. She also looked dangerous. from The Udder Story by Abha Iyengar

If we are out in the car, we have to stop if Farmer Steve’s cows are crossing the main road from She Hates Cows by Henry Bladon

It would come as no surprise if they slipped something into my food or drink. from An Aunt Called Moo by Cheryl Ferguson Bernini

Twice a day, I reported to the barn promptly at milking time. from The Birthing by Sandra Hager Eliason

and on days of hidden frustrated tears / cow stood placidly warm and willing / to hear my complaints from vacca by William Butler

we saw the vehicle was surrounded / by cattle as if at a giant salt kick: from Cattle Drive by Robert Cooperman

‘Elvis died on a Tuesday. It’s a day when things happen.’ from Smoke Signals by Kay Sandry

Surely resistant to hot summers, / large and meaty – well-bred beef / to please discriminating palates; from Gene Pool by Janet Powers

Another farmer holds his breath. from The foot and mouth crisis 2001 by Mark Heathcote

“At night only red ones are dangerous. I learnt it on safari.” from Electricity by Tim Love

I brandished a clump of carrots to bribe her, drank her dry of milk and took her tenderly by the horn. from Dinner by GP Hyde

Such a godsend, that Purple Cow, / batting her big eyes at me from Less Vodka, More Beer by Darrell Petska

Our cow revels in dirty dishes, / Soapy water, warm hands from Kitchen Cow by Mary Ann Noe

I’m angry. I want – no, I need to be good at milking too. from Milking by JA Rose

Several that survive days in sludge / develop hypothermia or suffer cuts, abscesses from Cows in a Flood by Rob McKinnon

“You posh boys are actually saving us a messy job here. No one else wants to do it.” from Cattle and Cacus by Barry Norton

“He’s a persistent masochist. Where can I find a cow?” from Movement by Jenean McBrearty

You’re strung out on leather goods. / You’re the matador of the steakhouse from Milk Dreams by Remngton Murphy

The skin fell away from the carcass with long sweeps of the knife. from Paddock Kill by Allan J. Wills

No, Bess has lock / and key on loyalty and knows the ding— from Waiting for Bess to Come Home by Anne Harding Woodworth

I read them over in another language, and try to / see the South of France or a fresh field with cows. from Her People by Amy Soricelli

There was fresh milk coaxed into a milk can / by his hands, and brought home from Grandpa Russ by Gabby Gilliam

I sat down with a piece of paper to write my list. It was short. from My Three Cows by Judith Shapiro

Let me be clear: I know almost nothing about cows. from The Cows in My Life by Ann Liska

Let her know the brutal truth of her dear calf’s fate. from Autumn Field by Matthew Horsfall

“Everyone runs away from me,” sighs the woman. “Why not a cow, too?” from Talking to a Cow by Lea Storry

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