No time to leave

they hesitated, the cows, they
kept on stepping aside in a
suspicious way
the grass still high, a bright
blue sky, definitely not a
time to leave

they looked at me but I could
not tell, as they were gathered
together eventually
taken away in this livestock
trailer behind a van
bumbling along a narrow road

I imagined a barn with beds
of warm straw, misty breaths
as morning fog, the soothing
licking of each other's coats

somebody said
cows cry real tears
like people

like people
in an empty field