VERONIKA

by Frank Conahan

Scientists have been forced to rethink the intelligence of cattle after an Austrian cow named Veronika displayed an impressive—and until now undocumented—knack for tool use. Photo: Veronika scratching her back with a stick. Photographer: Antonio J Osuna Mascaró —The Guardian, January 19, 2026

I was reading that

A cow in Austria is

Using a stick to

Scratch various parts of her

Body. She holds it

Differently in her mouth to

Reach her itchy parts. 

This is news because she's not

A chimp. They do stuff

Like this all the time, it seems. 

Animals who have

Intelligence of different 

Degrees use tools with

Different sophistication. 

Dogs and cats play with

Toys, slippers, sticks, and corpses.

Ravens manipulate

Stones. Chimps employ weaponry.

Why are we surprised?

Intelligent animals 

Use tools, look at us.

We're practically destroying 

The planet with ours.

(Intelligence is... complex.)

I hope the cow is

Enjoying celebrity.

She could be dinner soon.

Frank Conahan lives in reclusive retirement outside of Baltimore, Maryland. He follows current events with trepidation and copes by writing verse. He has recently published poems with Bards of Maryland. His collection Nothing Is Coming will be published this spring.

WHAT PEOPLE MEAN WHEN THEY SAY LATER

by Devon Balwit

The headlines scream of war and child labor,
the ways humans brutalize each other. The authors
hope to shame us out of apathy. Near
their blare gapes a book with a cow on the cover.
Her long-lashed eyes make this reader hunger
to press my face to hers. She’s been slaughtered,
one of tens of millions every year, numbers
too large to render back into individual creatures,
a fact, with our favorite and customary foods, we prefer
to ignore. We ought care more for human mothers
some argue—for farmers and workers, for the poor,
who cannot afford to eat ethically. Later
we can worry about animal welfare. Later, 
my friends, is a common synonym for never.

Devon Balwit walks in all weather. Her most recent collection is Spirit Spout [Nixes Mate Books, 2023].