Dead Cattle And Rain Poem by Wojja Fink

She cried all night in the field
Surrounded by hills and pouring rain
The cry vibrating, echoing around the hills
Sounding like a ship lost in fog
Her belly arched then heaved
Bellowing mournful cries at lifeless calf
Cold and wet, unmoving in the sodden grass
All through the night she cried
And the following day
Surrounded by living beauty
Pierced by mother’s cries

The young farmer with voice
As gentle as the hills
And sadness in his eyes
Loaded the calf into his trailer
Mother looked on head bowed
Then mourned again with dreadful cries
Across the naked beautiful field
Where streams run timeless to the Loch
And out to distant sea.


Dead Sheep and Buzzards

After the calf a sheep lay beautiful in death
Upon such a scene as only earth could paint
Swollen, stiff with white white fleece
Ripped in haste by magpie, buzzard and red kite,
Eyeless sockets ringed in crimson blood
Against the vibrant lush of green
Black headed with horns of grey
White fleece upon the grass
No mournful cries for lonely sheep
Just the squabbling of the birds
For their turn
Upon the carcass
In a valley of beautiful stillness.