“Weichuan Farmers” [渭川田家] by Wang Wei [王维] [w/ Audio]

Low, warm light lands on the village.
Cattle and sheep trapsing farmward.
Farmer mulls a missing shepherd,
Leaning on his staff, still on guard.
Pheasants cluck, wheat heads are heavy,
Silkworms dormant, mulberry leaves few.
Farmers stand, hoes on their shoulders,
Telling old tales, as if they were new.
How I envy the idle time --
To chat about mankind's decline.

This is poem #16 of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首.] The original poem in Simplified Chinese is:

斜光照墟落, 穷巷牛羊归。 
野老念牧童, 倚杖候荆扉。
雉雊麦苗秀, 蚕眠桑叶稀。
田夫荷锄立, 相见语依依。
即此羡闲逸, 怅然吟式微。

Secondary Feeders [Haiku]

after harvest
cows stubble graze, &
egrets hunt in the wake.

Livestock Rush Hour [Haiku]

horde of livestock 
sprawls puddle-strewn lane
between downpours.

Bovine Brothers? [Senryū]

bovine brothers?
 or twins? or maybe I'm just
  seeing double?

“Anguish” [Haiku]

“Anguish” by August Friedrich Albrecht Schenck (1878)
mother bleats a cloud,
standing over its dead lamb --
ringed by a murder 

Bull Street [Senryū]

the bull doesn't feign stealth,
yet gets close enough to make
shoppers poop themselves

Silent Hilltop [Haiku]

horses graze
around the chorten,
in silence

DAILY PHOTO: What Do You Get When You Cross a Yak & a Cow?: A Dzo

Taken in May of 2022 on the Goechala Trail in Sikkim

DAILY PHOTO: Bucolic Kyrgyzstan

Taken in August of 2019 in Karakol Nature Park

Horses [Haiku]

horses graze
up a green hillside
as rain threatens