Gary David Johnson
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THE CALMNESS OF THE COW
(Guernica, April 26,
1937)
I.
(South Omaha, April 26, 1957)
A Cub Scout, I was taken on a tour:
Meat-packing plant, the euphemism used
back then, for slaughterhouse. It was a poor
choice, I thought, even then and even more
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today. For there’s a sound that has refused
to leave me, echoes now, a woeful roar
of anguish and surprise. The beast confused
until the sledge hit twice...and sound diffused;
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Such sound a child should not have heard at all.
No, none of us, above the narrow stall
that it was forced into: could not forestall
that second stroke, a shock I’ll