Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GEO-BESTIARY: 15, by JAMES HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GEO-BESTIARY: 15, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Concha is perhaps seven. No one knows this cow dog's age for sure but
Last Line: Future, which by nature she ignores, so much better to me than none.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Cattle


Concha is perhaps seven. No one knows this cow dog's age for sure but
of course she could care less. Let us weep for the grandeur of rebellious
women. After a lifetime of service as a faithful tender of cattle her mind
has changed itself. She's become daffy and won't do her job. She's the
alpha bitch and leads the other cow dogs off on nightly runs after javelina
and deer, maybe herding steers when she shouldn't, driving horses mad.
They return worthlessly exhausted. Now the death sentence hangs above
her mottled gray head like a halo of flies. She's chained to a mesquite,
barking for hours without pause. I bring her biscuits on frosty mornings
and she shivers without in her solitary confinement but inside it's obvious
that she's hot and singing. Her head with its streaks of barbed-wire
scars awaits the trigger finger. But then on a dark, wet morning, the grace
of El Nino in this parched land, her reprieve arrives. She's being exiled to
a ranch in Mexico just south of here where they need a crazed bitch
who's kick-ass with range bulls. She'll drive one into an outhouse if that's
what you want. This is a triumph beyond good-byes and I watch through
the window as she leaves the barnyard in the back of a pickup, the wind
and rain in her face, baring her teeth in anger or a smile, her uncertain
future, which by nature she ignores, so much better to me than none.





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