Holy Cattle: Wendell Berry’s ‘Remembering that it happened once’

Over at Poetry for life we’re reading (and I’m memorizing) Wendell Berry’s “Remembering that it happened once,” a Christmas poem. Here’s my holiday poem about cattle.

Advent Calendar

The last members of the creche
(before Baby Jesus) are the cattle
his and hers
black and white
both sit in the stable, behind the fence,
they didn’t come with shepherds, with kings, with a man and a wife,
they were there all along,
chewing their cud
and they are still chewing
chewing over all of it.
When Christ comes
they will be chewing, still.

– Megan Willome