Eulogy For An Ox Poem by Abraham Sutzkever

Oh, come admire my ox.
He is beyond compare.
His father was the sun,
His mother — moon.

Whiter than a woman's
First milkspray
When she gives to suck —
The whiteness of his forehead.

In his eyes you see the future.
But do not dare
To open them
When they doze.

The horns are masts of a ship
Carrying treasures in her belly.

Girls change in the shimmer of his splendor.
In their blood —
The warmth of strangers' mouths.

Oh, come admire my ox.
He is beyond compare.

Where he bathes — the rivers turn sweet.