On the edge of irrigated green
grazing toward morning shade,
she’s on vacation, calf gone
as another stirs in her belly
to fulfill the appetites of a reckless
race she’ll never know.
Behind the barbed wire, safe
beyond the thistles, she’s content
to gossip days with girlfriends,
to contemplate a moment
for undisturbed hours—perfecting
poetry within her heavy skull.
