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Poems submitted for the 2019 World Food Day Poetry Competition

Poem by Rob Winters

1/13/2020

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​My Herd
 
“Consumers are expected to eat 222.2 pounds of red meat and poultry this year (2018).”
  -- USDA
 
“A steer weighing 1,000 pounds will average around 430 pounds of retail cuts.”
  -- OK Dept of Agriculture
 
Since I was eighteen, or so,
responsible for feeding myself,
I have eaten twenty cows.
 
That’s based on averages.
Being honest with myself,
I have probably eaten twenty-one.
 
Now that it’s been said aloud,
I feel that the onus is on me
to account for them.
 
I drink about a gallon of clean water per day
and shower in perhaps nineteen more
but my cows drink two hundred.
 
Mea culpa.
 
We eat together, too.
I eat the cows, while they eat
five hundred pounds of forage a day.
 
Sorry; that sounds like a lot.
 
Clearly, I will need a pickup truck
to carry all that feed,
and some fairly large shovels.
 
Apologies to my neighbors.
 
 
Also, I have to name all twenty-one
and keep a waiting list of cow names,
one every other year,
 
to expand the herd.
Picture
Rob Winters (Prince George’s County, MD) is a computer engineer at NASA who writes enough poetry to have something to read at local poetry events. His poems have appeared in 21: Blackjack Poetry Journal, District Lines, and Gargoyle. He lives with a poet, two cats, and a bird in Bowie, Maryland. 

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    These poems were recognized at the 2019 WFD Poetry Competition

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  • Home
  • Art Auction to Alleviate Hunger
  • Hunger Poetry
    • Hunger Poems
    • World Food Day Poetry Competition >
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
    • Maryland Poets
    • International Poets
  • About
    • About the Initiative
    • Initiative Founder
    • Advisory Board
  • News & Blog
  • Young!
    • Poems by Young Poets
    • Videos
    • Materials for Teachers
  • Library
    • Extent of Hunger >
      • Global Hunger: Progress & Challenges
      • Hunger in the US
    • Historic Accounts of Hunger >
      • Africa
      • The Americas
      • Asia
      • Europe and Russia
    • Historical Poems
    • Interviews
    • Recent highlights
  • Contact/Submit/Take Action
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Call to Action
    • Resources & Donations >
      • Global resources
      • US resources
      • Maryland resources