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How many cows can you get on a bus? a free verse poem

For this week’s Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge #256 I wrote a free verse poem How many cows can you get on a bus? inspired by the photo below.

How many cows can you get on a bus?

How many cows can you get on a bus?
I can’t get one on, said the man with a cuss.
Mon dieu! Gasped l’homme (that’s French for the man)
She won’t moo-ve
I think she’s stuck in a groove,
I push and I shove, but not an inch will she budge,
It is too big, said a lad, but I’m no sitting judge.
No matter how hard I try,
I can’t get her in,
I heave and I heave,
(the young lad wipes snot on his sleeve)
I think I might cry.
Please help said the man,
I don’t think I can, said the boy,
Might it be better to order a van?
The man (l’homme) was in tears.
Mais non! Come, come, how can I do that?
Daisy the cow, and I have travelled by bus for years!
~

Lesley Scoble, February 2024

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thank you, Melissa, for this wonderful and absurd photograph prompt. I love it! I’ve travelled on buses in the Sierra Nevada that had chickens and goats for passengers, but never a cow! It must be a French thing. J’adore!

Photo credit: Homme poussant une vache dans un bus, Paris, 1950 by Henri Roger-Viollet.

Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.

lesleyscoble

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