K. JANE CHILDS

WILD

Every day when I arrive at the artificial insemination school, the dew-spattered practice cows are pastured in a picturesque pastoral scene just between the barn and the main building.

“Virgin heifers are ideal for AI,” says the balding woman with the chambray button-down, as I look out the window. I am at the perfect angle to see the cows pretend they are wild.

Putting on the gloves
I am hopeful
that today
will be
the day
I don’t apologize
when I spread the cow
and insert.
Two times before
everyone laughed but
this time
will be
different. 

The guy wearing pointed boots, looking like he learned these tricks from kneehigh, let slide a pint of bull semen to the barn floor. Adjusting my Red Sox cap let me hide my smirk.

When I get home, as I prepare the medications, I’ll tell my son that today I did better.

When he asks again if we are cowboys yet, I will place the new cannula and duoderm, and say, “Almost, son.”

Tomorrow I will take him to the park to get sunburned.

K. Jane Childs is a persona constructed in Bluffton, Hilton Head, Paros, Charleston, and Mobile. Work advanced under the K. Jane Childs persona has appeared in Deep South and Revolution House. More detail about this persona is forthcoming.