Rise Up Review
God of Luck
On December 2, 2003, a one and a half year-old Hereford steer ran away from a slaughterhouse near Detroit’s Eastern Market. This was widely reported in the news media.
the steer became famous that day, tearing out the back of a livestock truck
careening down East Jefferson Ave. as people on sidewalks cheered
until a tranquilizer gun halted him next to Martin Luther King Jr. High School
but some cattle arrived with flesh already torn by other steer unhinged by terror
those who could walk were shoved into high walled chutes
skulls shot through with electric bolts
which should have rendered them unconscious
but sometimes did not
rescuers named the runaway steer Jefferson
paid his vet bills, sent him to a green and lovely farm
but back in the city, nameless ones still dangled from meat hooks,
some still alive and moaning, when blades ruthless as axes
amputated each foot
the last steer to leave the truck did so in shovelfuls of red dripping parts
the steer who escaped
did so only when a worker glanced too long at his watch
or a gate hinge suddenly
broke
—Nancy Jaroslawski Erickson
Nancy Jaroslawski Erickson's previous publications include a short story in Sunrust and creative nonfiction guest columns in The Detroit News and The Hamtramck Citizen. Two of her poems have appeared in The Wayne Literary Review, located at Wayne State University. The fact that she has lived most of her life within or near Detroit shapes 97% of what she writes. She also taught school for 21 years in Hamtramck, Michigan, a largely immigrant, urban community where nearly 30 languages are spoken.
