Poem by Katy Giebenhain

5/26/2020

Love Letter to a Dairy Farmer

This year was supposed to be a good one. Finally.

And now the virus closes restaurants,
schools, the big customers.
Heartbreak is the sound in drains –
a fresh tide rushing
across tiles and concrete
from Idaho to Maine, from farm to farm
15,000 gallons a day.
And somewhere, all of it is wanted.
All of it is needed.

This year was supposed to be a good one. Finally.

What I want to say
is how essential you are. You deserve
Cole Porter lyrics. You deserve a serenade
and decent prices every day.
No matter where milk or
the voluptuous power of butter lands –
refrigerators in motorhomes, houses,
skyscraper cantinas, in every
coffeeshop in every time zone.

This year was supposed to be a good one. Finally.

Udders don’t shut off like faucets.
Bills don’t disappear.
For generations, on schedule,
stanchioned cows bring it
like miners above ground.
Fears and hopes lift
like Jersey eyelashes, like Holstein belly-sighs.
Nothing is abstract.
Farmers know.

What I want to say is thank you
every year. And may this one come to be
what it’s supposed to be. Finally.

Click on the file below to listen to Katy reading her poem