Big Open

I pregnacy test
1,000 mother cows under a warm, sweet wind.
Spilt milk clouds.
Green grass in November.
Ring-tailed hawks perch over the emptiness on the
cottonwoods of Little McGinnis Creek, waiting for
death that will not come.
Antelope and mule deer graze
together, nearby, unafraid,
knowing we have no rifles. 

I give the late pregnancies another chance,
let them stay on another year, hoping Winter forgives
them,
and me.