Baby Beef Chorus
Posted on 14 Aug 2008 at 08:39 am | Tagged as: Lifestyle Hall
I can close my eyes and hear the clank of that big door into the ring, where the auctioneer begins to chant. “What’ll you give?”
“That’s a good solid calf.” “A dollar twenty, do I hear 25?” It sounds like cell doors clanging shut in a prison. That’s what I am, a prisoner of these cowboys who poke and prod and make me move around the ring, to show my best side. Then, even before the bidding stops, I am pushed out the other door to be put in some buyer’s lot.
The only thing I can think of is, “Where are you, Mama?” It was so much fun in the pasture where I could run and play with my friends and eat when I got hungry. What am I doing here? I feel like I’m being punished. They jammed me into a trailer that was so full I couldn’t even wiggle.I didn’t fall down when my feet slid on the wet floor, but the grassy pasture was sure a lot softer to stand on.
I hear lots of babies crying, waiting in little square pens in the big sale barn. Where did they all come from? They put me in a pen with about 40 other strangers. I passed my sister in the aisle. She learned about pregnancy tests and…the workers are all cussing about how mad she got, kicking the vet in the leg. What do they mean? “They will all end up as steak at some cowboy’s barbeque next year?”
Ouch! Here comes that electric buzzer again….Wait a minute! We just got out of one trailer, where are we going now? Hey, this really isn’t such a bad place. Nice little corral, dry hay and fresh water. I might even like it here….What a night! Couldn’t sleep a wink! Some of my new friends bawled all night long. It was the first time they were away from their mothers. Throats are even hoarse. Uh-oh, they’re warming up a branding iron? On top of missing you mom….Ma-a-aw! Maw! You never warned us that some things might hurt. Hey, our chorus sounds pretty good together! There’s Mrs. Farmer taping us now. She thinks her city cousin would like to hear the sounds of farm life. Mmm-o-mm, can’t you hear us….all together? I wish I could have stayed home. Ma-a-a-w! Ma-a-a-aw!
Lynn Moriarty Parman is author of Mushroom Marathon, Running Toward the Prize of Serenity, 2004, Authorhouse. She has also been published in Stars and Stripes, 2003.
