Milking, Summer Evening

The black bitch barks and

swollen with grass-rich milk

we walk the slow lane. 

Gently, the cowman pats our fly-blown flanks

scabbed from the dried fields.

The drooping sun turns to blood 

the lazy stream,

where feeding trout flick and drift.

From the wood’s gloom 

white-starred garlic shines,

its sharp scent curdling the heavy air.

The sweet, chill parlour offers cool release 

from summer’s plenty.

Emptied, we re-enter shadows, tail to muzzle,

and from the west a welcome drizzle floats.

Don J Taylor lives in Central Scotland. His short fiction and poetry have been published in print and online in the UK, US, and Germany. He was a Pushcart Prize nominee, and shortlisted for the 2022 Janet Coates poetry prize. His poetry has recently been published in Dreich Magazine, and the Federation of Writers Scotland Anthology 2024.