Calf

Poetry by Molly Kugel Merkner

Poem 4 of 4

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I found a clip of Gabriel Gatehouse, East African correspondent for the BBC News, reporting from Kenya. Everything was very matter of fact. I thought about him witnessing this brutality and my own absence and disengagement from so many global tragedies.

Factory farming heavily influences food production in the U.S. at the expense of animal welfare. Though animals on factory farms are inarguably capable of family function and feeling beyond what we can presently understand, the industry continues with little regulation. This is based on a true story of a group of boy calves in Florida not sold for veal (another abusive practice that usually includes veal crates, characterized by darkness, confinement, and malnutrition − a practice that’s becoming too expensive for many dairy farmers due to feed costs) but instead killed immediately after birth. Killing the calves immediately is probably the less abusive of the two. Another cruel reality is that without human interruption, calves would nurse for a year, and veterinary studies have shown that the cow and calf would maintain a lifelong bond.

McArthur Dairy Farms, Okeechobee County, FL

They have taken them from their mothers.

They have brought them wet

with afterbirth, past bedtime,

in the rusty bed

of a pickup truck.

Thirteen newborn boy calves,

a muddy pit, a small caliber pistol.

In the clover valley where

their mothers grazed months before,

a dirge plays, whistles among the ryegrass over the hill,

boxelders lining the fence in the distance.

Their beautiful ghosts will search

for their mothers here,

finally drink the warm milk

meant for them.