​To the Cows Drinking from a Stream in a Painting from Centuries Ago, by Christine Osvald-Mruz

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds, by John Constable (England) 1825

​To the Cows Drinking from a Stream in a Painting from Centuries Ago
  
You look so unbothered,
wading in the turquoise shallows,
bowing your smooth foreheads.
 
You dunk your square muzzles,
your leaf-like ears nonchalant
at the sound of trickling water.
 
You stand under ancient trees 
of summer foliage, mossy trunks, 
light blue sky, puffed clouds.
 
You don’t care who is king,
suffer matters of church and state
or seethe with moral outrage.
 
You wade and drink, 
maybe look around,
breathe and low.
 
I’m sure you have your troubles, too.
Rough stones under your hooves; flies.
Being milked, being eaten.
 
But your steady backs
bear no fear of dark times,
no bracing for bad news.
 
Like the trees, the moss, the sky, the clouds - 
Won’t there always be cows? 
Won’t there always be streams?
 
Of what can we be sure?

Christine Osvald-Mruz
​
Christine Osvald-Mruz is an attorney in private practice and the mother of four sons. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Christine is the daughter of a Hungarian immigrant father who taught French and an English-teacher mother. Originally from Long Island, New York, she lives in Morristown, New Jersey. Her work has appeared in Atlanta Review.