Laura

In the damp hallways of a collapsing
farmhouse mushrooms grew along
the walls, and vermin chewed on stale
bits of old food that were left in the cabinets.
The barn was in disarray, as well, and in the
center of it an old dairy cow named Laura
was dying. A large piece of splintered wood
from the rafters was embedded between two
of her four stomachs and greenish bile and blood
seeped out around the edges of the swollen wound.
Every time she took a breath the sharp edges would
hook themselves deeper and create waves of pain
that traveled throughout her whole body.
She had had multiple seizures in the hours spent
laying there and in the minutes before she
would slip away she saw solid shapes orbiting
above her. They were like satellites if a cow knew
what satellites were, and she followed their rotation
with her eye as long as she could until everything
was white and then black like the spot on her nose.