Slaugterhouse Blackberry

Blackberries crouch in messianic crowns dusted
with suspicious stuff which never quite deters
foragers of fruit. 

And though dogs are sure to go on the lower berries
it’s only the youngest kids who get them and they’re
innocence immune. 

So when a newborn calf skids down the hollow way
born twice within seconds, mother, hawthorn, road,
we’re all in awe,

wondering how hopeful autumn baskets might hold
35 kg of unfed veal, amniotic fluid heaving at the nose
mother lowing; so it goes.