lady tencows

Lady Tencows

They laugh, "A woman's worth one cow."

She, halt by her father's hand

and Mawmaw's cross-eyed bull,

was, well, worth less.

Bold-tongued,

opined about the length of thatch

and how the sun peers in our hut

to make a longer day

                                 and me

more of laughter's fool.

But she can read the stars

and mix a brew to tend the night

and tether sorrows

with arms that know the length of love.

They watch her on the path,

blinking at her broad-brimmed hat,

while she,

standing at the edge of all we know,

scatters words.

                       Ten cows I gave for her.

                       Ten cows was all I had.