[Cow Suckling a Calf], c. 801-900 C.E., India
Sandstone
55.3 × 73.7 × 9.6 cm
Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
The grass blades bowed their heads toward earth,
baptized by rain from last night’s thunderstorm.
His June birth came with the cicada’s swarm –
new summer’s fanfare and the meadow’s mirth,
swelling, all for him. Soon after, knees burst
forth, fresh and straw-caked from his manger’s warm
folds, and the gravity of mother’s form
braced his wobble as he sprouted to nurse.
But he did not live to see evening’s sky
float from coral to cobalt. I found him
that night, stiff, back behind the hay shed
without a blemish on his coat. The rye
field’s choir softened their din as her death hymn
rose with the moon over his empty bed.