Poetry and Art By Tim Gorski from All-Creatures.org

Milk or Veal

In the dark and narrow shed she stands,
The mother cow with heavy demands.
Her swollen udder aches and strains,
Her weary heart beats with endless pains.

For she knows the fate that lies ahead,
If her calf is born a girl instead.
Into the dairy line she'll go,
Her life a cycle of milk and woe.

But if a boy, the fate is grim,
Confined in a crate, so cruel and dim.
Torn from his mother, left to die,
His life a fleeting, hopeless lie.

The mother cow, she cannot bear
The thought of losing one so fair.
Her heart cries out, her soul does ache,
For a life beyond this cold, dark place.

She dreams of fields with endless grass,
Where she and her calf can roam and pass
The hours in peace, without a care,
A life so beautiful and so very rare.

But in the shed, she stands alone,
Her fate, her calf's, already known.
She prays for mercy, for a chance,
To break the cycle, to break the trance.

For all the cows who came before,
And all the calves who lived no more,
She vows to fight, to make a change,
To live in freedom, not in restraints.

And so she stands there, proud and strong,
With hope and love, she sings her song.
A song of freedom, of justice, of light,
A song that echoes through the night.

© Tim Gorski 2023

 

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