Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 20,000 daily subscribers and over 8,000 archived posts.
Sean Sexton: Semen Testing the Herd Bulls
Everything that matters in life flows through tubes
—Georg Lichtenburg
We get an early start.
Each driven from seclusion,
congenial as flood-staged rivers,
they set in motion on lumbering trajectories
to the gate. We push them in trios
and quartets—bellowing down the lane
—a rider betwixt to stage them
strategically in the pens. Once
arrived, the usual upstart gets thrown
through a fence.
And they fill the hopper one by one,
brought up the runway, a bull at a time
for the test, as others wait like the elderly
on their scripts at the chemist.
Some barely fit the squeeze, poled behind,
palpated before insertion of the probe;
then three moments, three rocking pulses,
a crystalline slide of half-lives in the lens.
I see a whole semi-load of calves!
Is the shout. Boss says, Worm him, and,
turn him out.
~~~
Sean Sexton was born and raised on his family’s Treasure Hammock Ranch and divides his time between writing, painting, and managing a 700-acre cow-calf and seed stock operation. His books include Portals: Poems (Press 53).
Copyright 2025 Sean Sexton
Discover more from Vox Populi
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Sean’s poems are utterly fascinating to me–pun intended, even if the gender is wrong! (Bravo once again)
LikeLike
I wish you all could stand chute-side among the great characters executing these events ,& this work. There is rich character, deep humour in the fullest sense of that gravid word, and certain plenitude to it all I’ve spent my whole life within. I am the luckiest man alive.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well you all:
I shall fold your words into a pocket of my soul like a fresh handkerchief with assurances of your sweetness and affection when the difficult airs arise. How fabulous all of you are! Indispensible to me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
What I so admire in Sean’s poetry about managing his ranch and herd, is that his poems are all concision, spare language, taut syntax & have a such a deeply definitive tone. And how this does touch us, strongly. And how the same poet, when looking at nature –and human nature too — handles the lyric with such fluid, delicate, soulful & emotional ease & suppleness. How Sean’s work handles absolute stoicism & tender vulnerability with equal capacity and talent.
Bravo to you, Sean.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I totally agree. Have nothing intelligent to add to what you already said so well.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, bravo. Thank you, Laure-Anne.
>
LikeLiked by 2 people
I always look forward to the leaps and imagery in a Sean Sexton poem. Semen Testing the Herd Bulls lives up to the high standards Sean sets. His turns of phrase amaze. And woe to that renegade thrown through a fence. I can hear the crash.
Semen Testing… also reminded me of my own summer as the “hired man” on a Norwegian-American dairy farm, where the farmer talked to the milkers in Norwegian, and I was unceremoniously kicked in the calf after I mishandled a teat. No semen testing for those four-legged ladies, though milk output was measured carefully for each beast. My best friend was a calf confined to a pen. I was told how after I left, he was turned into veal, being of the wrong sex, too friendly, and with no redeeming seminal qualities.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thanks for the memories, Jim. For about ten years, my family owned a small horse ranch in Texas. It came with three half-wild horses and two burros who hated me. It was hard, dirty and sometimes dangerous work. I find it amazing Sean can turn these rude tasks into clear and true poetry.
>
LikeLiked by 2 people