A POEM by OZZYKA FARAH
Cash Cow
in cold, bastard night
blanket draped over
my face like a veil
I half-dreamt the world
in a teacup
in this chamomile dream
money was replaced with cheese
– it was just
as arbitrary
the cash cows mucked about
cloven-hoofed well-fed
this ruminant animal, chewing the cud
– blowing wind from anus or mouth, destroying the ether –
has eclipsed the significance of the honeybee
those with both, the financially fertile
(&/or the overdramatic) can bathe in milk & honey
rightfully so the farmers
would have their say
they
would stimulate the economy
shape
the stock market, control destiny, ruin
lives
cattle,
the new money printers, would be sacred
like India
in this new type of economy
cheese is the root of all evil, the symbol of freedom
rappers would use the vocable
money as a metaphor for cheese
no more posing
with dollar notes, presidents
spread out like a fan
“cheese rules everything
around me”
millions starving for cheddar, working sunup to sundown
around the clock, until the moon becomes the sun & is swallowed up again
Question: what if the moon was made of cheese?
on the right night
behind the wrought iron gates of the necropolis
imagine,
dancing on graves
hand-in-hand
under the milky way
galaxy
the hardened milk moon luminescent in coffin
-like black death of the universe
the vault of heaven
if life is a rat race
a compliment is a mousetrap & I am never flattered
in the past, settlers set out on expeditions
stumbling upon El Dorado bountiful with gouda encrusted
streets palaces paved of grana-padano gorgonzola gondolas across
the azure
elsewhere King Midas with his gift-&-curse
turns his daughter into a gargantuan block
of brie
His curse unnoticed
at the California State Fair
somewhere not too far
away, Rumpelstiltskin is busy at the spindle
weaving straw into camembert
Ozzýka Farah is a poet, editor, and content writer from Sacramento, California. His work has recently been published or is forthcoming in CausewayLit, Penumbra Literary and Art Journal, Dots Publications, Alternate Route, and the Big A Little a anthology. He currently lives between Melbourne, Australia and London, United Kingdom. Instagram and Twitter: @ozzynapoleon.