For Robert
Through this Grant Wood light
She plunged,
Out of her pasture
Into that pool …
A Guernsey heifer fallen
To cold light,
Cold concrete water;—
Her terror
At rootless earth,
No turf, no warm
Stanchion-hay to
Rest on. Drowning,
She scrawled the cement
Light below, cutting
It, lumbering as in no
Greek myth, nostrils
Filled under the light
Coat of water; dying … He
Hauled her out. He warmed her,
Roughed her hide
24 hours; watched over her till
Light came back to her fleece.
Thanksgiving was
Ours that clean light day.
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