On the Death of a Cow

All men slaughter cows,
he said; I chortled
You will watch too?
bemused; now I had to,
A five to ten minute
Process
of sucking, smacking, gasping
coughing, wheezing, moaning,
writhing, wrashing, sounds
of fluids seperating
Furrowed faces cried sweat into
the pools as red as paint
They undid ropes and the corpse
heaved again, a cinematic
bad guy that won't stay dead
They wiped the bright knife on its cheek
as it spluttered a cow's last words;
the final insult
And it fell, finally, like a sigh
its skin immediately snipped
torn, already a beautiful
blanket or rug or
Dissection had begun and I
channeled my high-school biologist
self, labeling livers, impressed
with the heart
The flies gave a festive funeral
the sun grieved loudly so no
one could ignore her
The former cow had five robot men
empty its shit, squeezing
intestines, slicing stomachs
reuniting new grass with old
We would eat around it.
Captivated children ran to help,
brought leaf fans to
plate organs, like jungle china
Hours of this
and she's gone.