The [cows] are giving themselves over
to the alternatives
I brush the [cows] tell them to stay
with us & eat all their fill of lawn
Laying down, the [cows] pray
for great washing grey rain to help crops
The [soy] is walking across School House Road
all hoof & tongue
My [mother] is calling the [almonds]
home, smacking a wooden spoon
against the belly of a pot the [cows’]
bones all bursting with
[soy] bean pods, hairy green fingers
my mother walking out to pick the plants
I tell her “those were [cows] you know?”
& she says she would know if they were [cows]
[almond] trees burst from skulls
feeding farm language, learning milk
from the [cow] bodies
blood into milk, I test it in the bathroom
a knife to my [soy]
a trickle of white, pour myself into a glass
it’s [almond] milk alright
all the blood sucked down into dirt
I dig with a spoon for [cows]
remembering the wideness of their eyes
the way all the [almonds]
flickered in each iris
I don’t find [soy] in the soil
but I do find cartons upon cartons
arranged [cow] quarts
the last drips of real milk
I cover them up again, tell the [cows]
to sleep well down there
that the [almonds] are over
& their job so well done
I buy a plastic [soy] gallon
drinking it all in one sitting
them climbing inside, like a [cow]
My mother buries me with them
