Confused Calving

[Stephen Whiteside]

Confused Calving

Ice bergs calve, I've heard it said.
Perhaps it's something that I've read.
Lifeless objects reproduce
Like dairy heifers? What the deuce!

If grass-filled paddocks filled with blocks
Of ice I'd say the after shocks
Would travel far from Shepparton.
I wouldn't be the only one

To pause and ponder: "What the hell?
This has a very fishy smell.
We're unprepared to face their ilk,
Though true, they look like frozen milk."

And then again, if dairy cows
Were spotted bobbing near the bows
Of ships out hunting minke, fin,
You'd blame the whiskey or the gin.

Cows and ice bergs, in their way,
Just do their thing, and who can say
That one is right, and one is wrong?
Just keep them where they both belong...

Stephen Whiteside 10.04.2015

[Neville Briggs]

Iceberg calving, of course. Looks like the scientific mob from time to time are given to poetic metaphor.