POEM :
COW INFANTICIDE
https://allpoetry.com/poem/18459238-Poem-Cow-infanticide...3June2025-by-Soman-Ragavan/
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Cows grieving the loss of their babies :
(1)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/juIMPkYaRzs
(2)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ru58ZZlSQCY
(3)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cnHfwPcwgcU
(4)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9WQaxr3lrA&pp=ygUqbW90aGVyIGNvdyB3YWlsaW5nIGF0IGxvc3Mgb2YgaGVyIG5ldyBjYWxm
Mother Cow Protects Baby Calf, Attacks Dairy Farmer
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(5)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlHStb8wl4Y&pp=ygUqbW90aGVyIGNvdyB3YWlsaW5nIGF0IGxvc3Mgb2YgaGVyIG5ldyBjYWxm
Farmer Separates Cow & Calf in Heartbreaking Footage
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(6)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOXFm2-wty4&pp=ygUqbW90aGVyIGNvdyB3YWlsaW5nIGF0IGxvc3Mgb2YgaGVyIG5ldyBjYWxm
POEM :
COW INFANTICIDE
Part 1
Struggling in pain, the cow goes into labour :
God, how would such a big baby come out...
Mother cow moans and cries :
This be the fate of those giving birth...
‘Tis a terrible experience,
But there be hardly a way out.
Time goes by, endless time,
Like endless suff’ring...
Finally, birth starts,
But the suff’ring does not end.
Giving birth in pain :
But, what awaits next ?...
*****
Part 2
Two-legg’d creatures be waiting nearby :
They be not vultures, be they ?...
These feed us : vultures feed on the dead :
My baby is alive and kicking...
I don’t mind the kicking :
‘Tis my fate,
As ‘tis with all my fellow cows :
From one life comes another little life...
A strange creature,
Square in shape, moving strangely,
Waits nearby, too :
Above a crow warns ominously...
The wonder of nature :
Immediately ‘pon birth,
The little one struggles to stand up :
What a joyous sight !...
Mother cow be exhaust’d, but happy :
It nudges the little one,
That nature hath given strength
To stand up pretty fast...
*****
Part 3
Red alert ! A two-legg’d creature be moving in !
Grabbing my baby, he struggles to walk :
He slugs along to the strange contraption :
Carrying my baby in his arms !...
Hardly do I get some respite
From the harrowing labour
That I have to run : I run :
I run, I stumble, ah my weak legs !...
That creature be stealing my baby
Please, give me back my baby !
The baby I nurtured for months ;
Please, I beg of you, return my baby !
He has two legs, I have four,
But I be weak from exhaustion,
From doing the duty nature gave me :
Yet, he runs faster, stealing my baby !...
*****
Part 4
God ! God of animals ! God of cows !
Anybody, please, please, plead with him :
Make him give me back my baby :
The poor thing needs to be fed...
I will feed him, I promise,
I swear I will feed him, even if I starve,
I will feed him and protect him :
Others can’t do this better !...
Nature hath decreed that baby
With mother should remain :
Why doth thou break my heart thus ?
What have I done to ye ?...
Ye wait’d quietly all these months,
Now suddenly ye smash my heart,
My very being, while I haven’t even recover’d :
I want to die ! Kill me ! Kill me, if a life thou want’st !!...
*****
Part 5
Ah shut up, old cow !
We have a good mind to take thee too
To yon place where thou wilt turn into food :
Shut up and be gone from here !
Eat thy grass : we need tasty stuff :
This little one be very tasty,
So have we decid’d :
And so the market wants...
This damn thing be slippery,
It wobbles, it struggles :
But not for long :
Soon ‘twill go quiet.
“If it were done when it were done,
It were better it were done quickly !...”
Ah, this wobbly thing is slipping away :
Here, go into this contraption, little food !
*****
Part 6
Mother cow keeps running,
Its last strength be drain’d from it :
What a life ! It feels heavy and weak :
From this place the contraption be moving off !...
My baby ! My baby ! Give me back my baby !
Afore birth I nurtur’d him well, didn’t I ?
What be thou doing with him ?
He will get milk, then grass...
Ah me ! I be falt’ring from this fight,
From this race, this losing race :
My legs be going, my heart be breaking :
What did I do to these two-legg’d killers ??...
Do I snatch their little ones away from them ?
They come to stroke me,
I allow them to do so :
Ne’er saw murder in their eyes !...
*****
Part 7
The butcher smiles to himself,
As he sharpens his knife :
A call came in : juicy stuff be on its way :
Clients could not ask for any better...
*****
Part 8
A call came in :
Hath been confirm’d the reservation for dinner...
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Part 9
Mother cow collaps’d on the grass...
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Soman Ragavan
3 June 2025
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