<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">The Birthing</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Call out the names in the procession of the loved.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Call from the blood the ancestors here to bear witness</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">to the day he stopped the car,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">we on our way to a great banquet in his honor.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">In a field a cow groaned lowing, trying to give birth,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">what he called <i class="">front leg presentation,</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">the calf comes out nose first, one front leg dangling from his mother.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">A fatal sign he said while rolling up the sleeves</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">of his dress shirt, and climbed the fence.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I watched him thrust his arms entire</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">into the yet to be, where I imagined holy sparrows scattering</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">in the hall of souls for his big mortal hands just to make way.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">With his whole weight he pushed the calf back in the mother</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and grasped the other leg tucked up like a closed wing</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">against the new one’s shoulder.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">And found a way in the warm dark to bring both legs out</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">into the world together.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Then heaved and pulled, the cow arching her back,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">until a bull calf, in a whoosh of blood and water,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">came falling whole and still onto the meadow.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">We rubbed his blackness, bloodying our hands.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">The mother licked her newborn, of us oblivious,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">until he moved a little, struggled.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I ran to get our coats, mine a green velvet cloak,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and his a tuxedo jacket, and worked to rub the new one dry</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">while he set out to find the farmer.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">When it was over, the new calf suckling his mother,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">the farmer soon to lead them to the barn,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">leaving our coats just where they lay</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">we huddled in the car.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">And then made love toward eternity,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Without a word drove slowly home. And loved some more.</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> - Deborah Digges</div></body></html>