Late Milking

Dot  Dionne  Toni  Glenda
Buttercup  Princess   all
shamble ahead of the leaping
yapping cross-kelpie  a tang
in the wake of their hooves
of urine  crushed grass  cowshit

Across the heavens evening
rasps a long red tongue
Dirty Emma wheels for the creek
and drinks among blackboy ferns
disdaining the dog  Mother
Cow  milk for the Atman

then heaves her huge Ayrshire
rump up the bank   up
the track with Annie and Deidre
Quail  Tamara  Meander  Alana
to the milking shed on the rise
where   plugged to the suckling cups

she and her sisters spray
their green summer shit on the concrete
Beethoven quartets dangle
from a cassette-player in the rafters
in the meditation of cud shines
the stillness of the Vedas

When you lift the lid from the chilled
metal vat and dip your cup
Marvellous!  a palate of cowshit
cud and crushed paddocks is
prismed in a white white sweetness
a memory like wine