Fear in the Meat

I was in the line

With all the others

Nose to tail, tail to nose

Grunting along like all the rest

Not really listening to the sharp

ZZzzt sound up ahead at the end

Of the line,

When I glanced up at the

Fence, and the fence just didn't

Seem all that tall, you know,

I ruminated to myself:

That fence ain't so fuckin' high!

And I mooed as much to Flossie's ass:

That fence is no higher than the fence

Me and Bull jumped that year--

And I heard a groan back behind me:

Don't do it, you'll make trouble for

All of us! Don't do it!

But I decided to try it and so I

Put a little space between me and

Flossie and then I made a leap and

--lo! I was out, gone, running off through

the woods beside the plant before

anybody knew anything was happening,

before any cow knew I was gone,

--and it did feel so good after all that

cramped time to stretch my legs,

the wind blew off all the flies that had

been bothering me, I ran and ran and

ran like an antelope, full of grace, until

I was out of breath and down in a little valley where I lay down to rest .

Flossie Wong-Staal

Rhode, Flossie E., farmstead - NARA - 279920

Hurricane Flossie

. .

I didn't know what I was going to do,

do you ever when you make that leap?

Just to rest and wait and sleep

the bliss-filled sleep of the happy feral cow

In the morning, I took off again,

and I saw them filming me up at the top of the ravine,

I knew something was going to happen then

and of course there was the prick

when the hypo hit my flank -

I ran a little more -

but the...