The Road Beneath Our Feet

A Cow’s Thoughts

So much of being a cow is easy.

It’s simple—when you’re a calf, you learn to eat the green stuff,
to skip the buttercups (they’ll make you sick),
and not to eat too near someone else’s poop.
You get older and your horns grow, and you figure out how to carry
your ears parallel to them.
Each day you follow a well-worn path
to the crisp air and clean pastures of high meadows.
Not difficult, so we make no fuss, and that’s why
cows are considered contented.

But, then, somebody had the bright idea
to put a collar and bell around each bovine neck.
Nobody asked: Do you like this tone? Is this heavy? 
Do you want every move you make to be marked by a sound?
Well, it happened—but if I lean just right, if I walk smoothly,
if I hold my head just so, the bell is silent, 
and each moment is kept properly quiet.

— Maria van Beuren