Eight Buffalo
       

An obstinacy of buffalo
is not to say that the buffalo
are stubborn. No, not like
a grass stain. More that
the very bulk of one—
silk eyed, nostril as big
as a fist—is a testament
to something we cannot
name in this life. And that
one buffalo, herded off a cliff
hoof over big, impossible hoof
could feed so many. And that
two buffalo could feed so many
more. And that three buffalo
could feed so many more.
Better to say an orbit of buffalo.
Better to say where the buffalo
roam than where they do not.
Three buffalo, four. Better to say
an obedience of them. An oblivion.

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Copyright © 2014 Cecilia Llompart All rights reserved
from The Wingless
Carnegie Mellon University Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission