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

Desperate cow chases after her calves on their way to slaughter 

 

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 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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