Zoe Bush

WISDOM OF AN OLD COW

Listen to the audio version read by Amelia Cotter.

The beastie’s teats once swollen are
now limp with absence

the soft beat
of a hollow drum,

her young gone and dragged away,
she’d done her part

and when the axe came, no
anguish.

Yet anguish the men in the
City feel

The bang of a piano’s keys Treasure loses flight.

And, like the old cow,
At once they know better

Now at the field’s edge
they sob.

Zoe Bush, 14, lives in Los Angeles, California though often fantasizes about living someplace rural surrounded by nature (preferably without her twin brother). She attends the 8th grade at a private girls school where she has the distinction of being their first student with a physical disability. Born prematurely, she has cerebral palsy but she doesn’t let that stop her. She is the recipient of a National Youth Arts Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress and is passionate about insects, reading, writing and musical theatre.