Joan Houlihan

Blind Trust

In the nod of a cow as, stiff-legged,
she leaps in the paddock, drops
to her knees, then back, to roll on new grass—

The large eye caresses yours. She smells you
as you lead her through the shaded field.
Hooded and without guile, she follows you
to the chute. You are the ignorance
she lives through, the heavy blade she hears
sliding into the grooves.

The secret brutalities will make patties from that
on your behalf. A human fraternity
carved out of a hung carcass.

Author: Joan Houlihan

Joan Houlihan is the author of five books of poetry, most recently, Shadow-feast (Four Way Books, 2018). A sixth collection, It Isn’t a Ghost if it Lives in Your Chest, is forthcoming in 2021. She is part-time Professor of Practice at Clark University in Worcester, MA and serves on the faculty of Lesley University’s Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program in Cambridge, MA. Houlihan founded and directs the Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference.

Plume: Issue #100 December 2019