Poetry, Essays and Art By J.H. Dickinson from All-Creatures.org

 

Brown eyes

I am watching you, brown eyes,
watching me.
Hot breath in
cold morning.
Eyes,
flecked by amber light.

Grunts
and bellows from behind
as you stray from the herd.
Powerful limbed,
machine of nature.
Deep soul, earthly resonant.

I wait and listen
for poignant change.
You eye me,
moving closer.
The fence between us,
a line that divides our value.

You could trample me
If I threatened, you and yours
or you could nudge me
awaiting food with my human arrival.

But on my side of the fence
is a raw and unworthy space.
Where your value is reduced
to parts:
animal materials,
component meats,
transitory ‘thing.’

Please stay on your side,
in fielded moment.
The gate between us,
forever locked,
against human tight-fisted ignorance,
of suffering
and emblazoned denial.

Of long overdue mass revelation.

I am watching you, brown eyes,
watching me.

I took this picture during a sudden meeting of a very lovely and curious cow on a cold morning, with a fence between us. Taken in rural Greenside, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear. A wonderful moment.

Go on to: By a muddied field
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