Laura Snyder


ODE TO RANGE COWS--2ND MOVEMENT

There you sit
royalty among tall grasses.
The gall of you all
within my gate, within my own fences,
uninvited you recline in splendor.
You turn your great heads,
eyes with no guile
speak innocence.
Thieves beyond conscience in green pastures
chew cud like some gum chewing adolescent
to cover eighty-five acres of guilt.
You admit to no nationality.
You, the free citizens of the world,
tear down borders that keep you from your seven stomachs.
The ruminations of your trespass
I hear over the truck's running engine.
If I should call out eviction,
assert my rights of ownership,
you would revenge yourselves upon my fencework
ignoring the wide open gate.
Yes, I have grass to spare,
but you will not be good neighbors.
You return the favor of my sweet clover
leaving no certain place for my feet.
 

Copyright 2000, Laura Snyder
 

Laura Snyder gathers many written words in Seattle, tumbles them, adds garlic, basil from her her garden, then tosses them out to the four winds. Her most recently published poems appear within the pages of Grrrr: A Collection of Poems About Bears, released in October 1999. "Ode to Range Cows--2nd Movement"  won a second place award from the Washington Poets Association, the 1998 Charlie Proctor Award for Humor.

Switched-on Gutenberg/Vol. 4, No. 2