The Cow in the Road

 

from this week in January, 1976  (I was 31)

 

         The Cow in the Road

Hello.

Welcome to your real life

(remember the other

 

the one with the golden hair

the one on the rocks by the sea

and the wind and the wave

 

that broke in trembling tetrameter

o’er myriads of naiads

gamboling upon the shore)

 

All that’s given way to tap dancing

up and down the stony steps of Sproul Hall

and all kinds of other groovy things

 

All that ended when the war did

All the soldiers were underground

waiting again to inhale the smoke and breathe the fire

 

Then came who cares leading up to now

and the ha ha of personal commitment

sitting on its own lap on our doorstep

 

saying its been there all the while and somehow

that has to be the truth and suddenly you know

you’ve been to the beach again

 

and there’s an oh-oh from the basement

and a rustling in the woodwork

and memories of the night the bats were loose in the house

 

But then all those things went by

not for everybody, but at least for us

We didn’t know the beginning

 

though we kept on surviving the end

and we will until one of us

fails to recognize the cow in the road