At the Hour of Milk
When the barn lit up for the very first time
the cows
in their stanchions
gave no milk
The galvanized buckets
deep black holes
anthracitic as the ravens on the fence
five in a row
a line of them reaching the farm
like the new electricity
They appeared that evening
hearing light
motionless
voiceless
as though whittled
of coal
Beyond
in the
eerie reach of the new light
the cows
trembled
the channels for their filth
all full
slow moving
a river of yesterday
Above, the swinging of
glowing filaments
Yesterday’s teats squinched by dawn-pink fingers
polished
into buckets
Galvanized
He always loved that word
Progress
Indestructability
Cheek to the warm
their steam in the bucket
their milk hides
His boy used to join him in the barn
at the hour of milk
when sweetness
instinctive in both
called lip to dipper
and they tasted brightness
Beneath the new light
he counted the cows
mouthed their names
Jenny Bertha Plum
Clover shifted her square and jutting hind
with its pendulous bag
hiding in her tender place
the righteous milk
…..
This poem is from the chapbook On the Lip of Night by Julie Esther Fisher (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://finishinglinepress.com/product/on-the-lip-of-night-by-julie-esther-fisher/
Julie Esther Fisher’s poems and short stories appear or are forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Waxwing, Chicago Quarterly Review, Radar Poetry, The Citron Review, Prime Number Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, On the Seawall, Sky Island Journal, Litmosphere, Leon Literary Review, Passager’s 2025 Contest Issue, and elsewhere. Winner of several awards, including Grand Prize Recipient of the Stories That Need to be Told Anthology, and Sunspot Lit’s Rigel Award, she has been shortlisted in numerous other contests. A grateful recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, she has received multiple Best of the Net and Pushcart nominations. Her novel in stories, A Pearl Is Just an Accident, is forthcoming from Silent Clamor Press. Raised in London, she holds degrees in fiction writing and counseling psychology. She lives today on conserved land in western Massachusetts.
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