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This was a hard calving, the one vet, matter-of-fact,
her arm sunk six joints deep in the flank of the cow,
the other buttressing the haunch, their sporadic chat
about the new ‘green’ Ford Focus, and the Practice lunch.

There was not much blood, though layers of flesh cut.
As we lugged the slack bundle from under her bones
it was all about keeping the cow upright where she stood
(a rope round her far hoof, both of us ready to haul)

and the slight smell of steak, and when the calf finally
shuddered a breath we draped him across a straw bale.
Then one got to sewing, the other to stopping the rumen,
the bagged uterus, all of it, tumbling into the mud.

When she was done with the needle and nylon thread
she strode to the calf, still caught in his own thick phlegm,
and in one smooth move, slung him over the gate to drain,
his curled coat slippery, his lovely head hung low,

froth streaming into the grass and he bucked at her slap
and the cow at last made her long drawn out soft moo
to call and claim him, while the hills all around spun slower
with us at the hub, by the gate, in this makeshift pen.

HILARY MENOS, 44, was a runner-up in the 2006 Mslexia Poetry Competition with ‘Off My Trolley.’ Her poetry has also appeared in the Oxford Poets Anthology (2007), and her first collection, Berg, will be published by Seren in 2010. Despite being a mother to four sons and working as a farmer, she manages to steal 10-15 hours a week to develop her writing. Coffee, the paper and a decent glass of wine are among her greatest addictions. She dreams of taking a year off, leaving daily life behind and sailing around the Mediterranean.

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