No offense to heterosexual cows.

“Those who teach us such things do not like us, brothers. They brought us drugs and homosexual practices that even cows disapprove of.” – President J.P. Magufuli of Tanzania in a June 2017 speech

Yes, the cows disapprove of us, my love.

They watch with narrowed bovine eyes
as your fingers interlace with mine.
They look up haughtily from their cud,
mouths slack in good Christian horror
at the brash way we speak in wordless glances.

Yes, even cows would never dare
to use their tongues to speak those saccharine words of devotion,
Or wrap their virtuous lips
around the moistened paper of your cigarette
after a long day of longing.

That guttural lowing could never harmonize
with the deep richness of your voice.
And those churning, chambered stomachs
could never fill with the butterflies
that flutter against the lumps in our throats.

Hold me, woman.
Give me the deepest depths of your humanity,
Let me make a home in your intoxicating forever
Until the cows come to tear it down.

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