Old Mother Azure
went to the pasture
to get her poor cow some straw
but when she got there
the ground was bare
and the poor cow wanted more
she went to the granary
to buy her some chaff
but when she came back
she was dealing with staff
she went to the farmer
to buy her some silage
but when she came back
she was flying on mileage
she went to the seamstress
to buy her a cloak
but when she came back
she was sniffing coke
she went to the milliners
to buy her a hat
but when she came back
she was chasing a gnat
she went to the snippers
to get her some colour
but when she came back
she was learning to holler
she went to the shoemaker
to buy her some crocs
but when she came back
she was wearing white socks
she went to the moon
to buy her some cheese
but when she came back
she was dancing with bees
she went to the sun
to buy her the world
but when she came back
it had all unfurled
Old Mother Azure
is now in the sky
while the cow jumped the moon
I don’t know why
Notes
I wrote this poem during my ‘cow’ period. Not all poems made it into the collection Cow, among them this one. It’s a riff on the children’s nursery rhyme ‘Old Mother Hubbard’.
Nursery rhymes include lots of oral histories, especially the histories of women. The struggles of women, especially single women, living in poverty. It is also about women’s connection with animals..
The photo is a cow I bought in Las Vegas, where there had been an exhibition that included Franz Marc’s leaping cow painting which you can find here. This is an image of joy, cow joy. It makes me smile each time I look at it..