Our Car Park Cow

Our Car Park Cow

A cow escaped from the market
and ran across the town
in a lonely stampede.
I imagine it was looking for
other escaped cows
or maybe just a door marked 'Exit'.

By the time it was cornered in the car park
outside work
it was looking tired
and confused
flustered like an old aunt
at the funeral of her matching uncle.

When the police turned up, the crowd were
already whispering about a child
killed in the High Street by a runaway cow.
Our car park cow didn't deny the charge.

The bullets punched holes in the cow's face
and it lay there for forty-five minutes
before the market van arrived to take it away.