The smell of cows is green

1. Poem that elaborates an image from rural life

There’s nothing quite like the way

a new calf will suck on your fingers

if you offer them.

They, like our own children, are hungry

for milk or knowledge.

That is a feeling I wish I could replicate.

The smell of horses is yellow

and the smell of pigs is brown,

but the smell of cows is green -

a glorious green smell that makes me homesick.

A smell that makes me remember quieter days,

happier days when everything made sense.

When I drive past a diary farm

I roll my windows down

in the hopes of catching a thread

of green scent.

And a longing, sad feeling

stirs in my chest.