shojiwax.com on Nostr: When is a cow not a cow? When it is close. It was just a cow by the side of the road. ...

When is a cow not a cow? When it is close.

It was just a cow by the side of the road. There were plenty more chewing their way through the paddock.

I was trying to photograph some interesting trees. I didnt want the stupid cows in the shot.

But then this one came over. Close enough that I could hear her breathing, close enough that I could see the muscles in one of her legs shaking, close enough that I could see the pupils in her marble black eyes…and it was no longer just another cow, it was a fellow sentient being.

And as I framed her, she reminded me again of one of my favourite poems:The Two-headed Calf

Tomorrow when the farm boys find this

freak of nature, they will wrap his body

in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

But tonight he is alive and in the north

field with his mother. It is a perfect

summer evening: the moon rising over

the orchard, the wind in the grass.

And as he stares into the sky, there

are twice as many stars as usual.

— Laura Gilpin

#blackAndWhite #monochrome #photography #poetry