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She Dreamed of Cows

by Norah Pollard

I knew a woman who washed her hair and bathed
her body and put on the nightgown she’d worn
as a bride and lay down with a .38 in her right hand.
Before she did the thing, she went over her life.
She started at the beginning and recalled everything—
all the shame, sorrow, regret and loss.
This took her a long time into the night 
and a long time crying out in rage and grief and disbelief—
until sleep captured her and bore her down.

She dreamed of a green pasture and a green oak tree.
She dreamed of cows. She dreamed she stood 
under the tree and the brown and white cows 
came slowly up from the pond and stood near her. 
Some butted her gently and they licked her bare arms 
with their great coarse drooling tongues. Their eyes, wet as 
shining water, regarded her. They came closer and began to 
press their warm flanks against her, and as they pressed
an almost unendurable joy came over her and 
lifted her like a warm wind and she could fly.
She flew over the tree and she flew over the field and 
she flew with the cows.

When the woman woke, she rose and went to the mirror.
She looked a long time at her living self.
Then she went down to the kitchen which the sun had made all
yellow, and she made tea. She drank it at the table, slowly,
all the while touching her arms where the cows had licked.