Cattle trail

What’s up here? Let’s find out.

The Calf-Path 

Sam Foss 

I.


One day through the primeval wood

A calf walked home as good calves should;

 

But made a trail all bent askew,

A crooked trail as all calves do. 

Since then three hundred years have fled,

And I infer the calf is dead.

II.
But still he left behind his trail,

And thereby hangs my moral tale. 

The trail was taken up next day,

By a lone dog that passed that way; 

And then a wise bell-wether sheep

Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep, 

And drew the flock behind him, too,

As good bell-wethers always do. 

And from that day, o'er hill and glade.

Through those old woods a path was made. 




III.


And many men wound in and out,

And dodged, and turned, and bent about, 

And uttered words of righteous wrath,

Because 'twas such a crooked path; 

But still they followed—do not laugh—

The first migrations of that calf, 

And through this winding wood-way stalked

Because he wobbled when he walked.


 

IV.


This forest path became a lane,

that bent and turned and turned again; 

This crooked lane became a road,

Where many a poor horse with his load 

Toiled on beneath the burning sun,

And traveled some three miles in one. 

And thus a century and a half

They trod the footsteps of that calf.


 

V.


The years passed on in swiftness fleet,

The road became a village street; 

And this, before men were aware,

A city's crowded thoroughfare. 

And soon the central street was this

Of a renowned metropolis; 

And men two centuries and a half,

Trod in the footsteps of that calf.


 

VI.


Each day a hundred thousand rout

Followed the zigzag calf about 

And o'er his crooked journey went

The traffic of a continent. 

A Hundred thousand men were led,

By one calf near three centuries dead. 

They followed still his crooked way,

And lost one hundred years a day; 

For thus such reverence is lent,

To well established precedent.
  

VII.
A moral lesson this might teach

Were I ordained and called to preach; 

For men are prone to go it blind

Along the calf-paths of the mind, 

And work away from sun to sun,

To do what other men have done. 

They follow in the beaten track,

And out and in, and forth and back, 

And still their devious course pursue,

To keep the path that others do. 

They keep the path a sacred groove,

Along which all their lives they move. 

But how the wise old wood gods laugh,

Who saw the first primeval calf. 

Ah, many things this tale might teach—

But I am not ordained to preach.

This poem is about how we can individually, collectively, institutionally end up doing things for dubious reasons—often because, “That’s the way we’ve always done it.”

However, sometimes it’s just fine to follow a rut cattle have stomped in the ground. I’ve been doing a bit of it lately. Besides making for easier walking, the trails usually lead to pastures or water or roads. Even if it leads to nothing more interesting than a pile of cow pies, it’s easy finding my way back. And since these trails aren’t designated in the guides, I have them to myself. Well, myself and some cows.