The Calves Not Chosen

By Linda Gregg b. 1942 Linda Gregg

The mind goes caw, caw, caw, caw,

dark and fast. The orphan heart

cries out, “Save me. Purchase me

as the sun makes the fruit ripe.

I am one with them and cannot feed

on winter dawns.” The black birds

are wrangling in the fields

and have no kindness, all sinew

and stick bones. Both male and female.

Their eyes are careless of cold and rain,

of both day and night. They love nothing

and are murderous with each other.

All things of the world are bowing

or being taken away. Only a few calves

will be chosen, the rest sold for meat.

The sound of the wind grows bigger

than the tree it’s in, lessens only

to increase. Haw, haw the crows call,

awake or asleep, in white, in black.

Linda Gregg, "The Calves Not Chosen" from All of it Singing: New & Selected Poems. Copyright © 2008 by Linda Gregg. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.

Source: All of it Singing: New & Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2008)

Biography

Born in New York, poet Linda Gregg was raised in Marin County, California. She received both a BA and an MA from San Francisco State University. Gregg has published several collections of poetry, including Too Bright to See (1981); Alma (1985); Things and Flesh (1999), finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry; and All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems, a Los Angeles Times Favorite Book of 2008 and winner of the . . .

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