Speaking of Stable Geniuses by Deborah Rasmussen - Rattle: Poetry (original) (raw)

I’ve only known one. It was my uncle

the dairyman who taught me to dip one finger

into a pail of freshly drawn milk and offer it

to syrup-eyed calves, who sucked greedily

for small reward then followed my hand

into the pail over and over until they learned

that milk could be freely lapped!

a miracle in the eyes of us youngsters

and genius, I thought, on the part of my uncle

who called all his look-alike Holsteins by name

and taught each one which slot was her own

among identical stalls in the milking stable.

It was he who could find a calf newly dropped

in the field where its mother thought it well-hidden

and it was he who could stand outside

the barn door and call toward the outer pasture

come boss to bring the herd home safe.

All this I thought to be genius

but I never heard him say so.

He just quietly did his work.