Out like a Lamb

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

– English proverb

March is ending and I haven’t been thinking about lambs.  Instead, my Uncle Bruno and cows have been on my mind.  A few weeks ago, at the age of 95, he said goodbye. I will miss him dearly. He shared many stories of his childhood and growing up in Newark, New Jersey.  My daughter, Chloe Yelena Miller, wrote the following poem based on his remembrances.

Noisier than the Milk

Newark, N.J.

The empty bottles chimed

with the horse’s half-moon step.

Two AM, the milkman found

screen door knobs in that unlocked dark.

The neighborhood children remember

those sounds like a map.

Fifteen cows up on Third Avenue

slept with hushed bells.

First published in SpiralBridge (2004)

© melabee m miller

And I think of him when I see this photograph of a lone cow in Doolin, Ireland.