“Cows”

“black angus” “cows” “are not lazy” “feeders” “they will
wander” “the paddocks” “migratory” “hierarchical”
“they will stay here” “forever” “like you” “johnny”
“who would not kill them now” “for johnny had said”

“he would never kill” “those few last cows” “the fog
clears” “we receive cows” “dark angels” “they emerge”
“from mist” “where the eucalyptus” “drown” “they call”
“this place” “their own” “a cow” “can be heard”

“downwind“ “forever” “this brilliant morning” “they
lived” “they held it” “like a cow would” “in the sway”
“of the velvet hips” “some cattle” “who know this place”
“have the breeze” “as a body” “the boulders as hearts”

“their milk lines” “of mothers and calves” “like streams”
“flooding the sunlight” “this is first light” “after the
magpies sang” “the big mob of cows” “were the first”
“to receive the sun” “at Rylstone” “on their fat black

backs!” “i stood before them” “those black nuns” “who
did not want me there” “without johnny” “so i didn’t
stay long” “the lines of light and shadow” “blew down
the slope” “being the hoofs of the cows” “bringing the

hoofs to my feet” “we all stood along the hill” “like
whispers” “bellowing” “in the broad daylight” “it was as
though we were standing” “alongside” “a giant free
falling wheel” “propelled by sun” “birdsong” “that

rotated the bands of light and shadow” “to where we
stood” “and back into the wide blue sky” “this light from
the cows is coming towards me” “in rotational bands”
“along the complex timeline” “of the Rylstone property”