Fresh Meat Fridays #2

Yes, I realize it is now Saturday...sorry (not sorry).

The Atomic Cow Deposition

The old man was crazy to be sure.

A respected doctor in his day,

he had become addicted to painkillers

and booze

and had lost his practice and his wife

back in ’74.

Since then, he mostly moved from state to state

writing himself prescriptions

and holing up in cheap motels.

He had saved old newspapers and at night

he would tie one on and reread

the horrible news about Kennedy’s

bloody trip to Dallas

or Truman’s bold bomb-drop

on all those sneaky, efficient Japanese.

So it was no surprise to those who knew him

when his diagnosis of stomach cancer

finally sent him over the edge.

He found an attorney in an old building

downtown, just above his favorite Chinese restaurant

and he showed him a clipping from ‘57

that proved beyond a reasonable doubt

that the U.S. Government had conducted nuclear tests

on unsuspecting citizens, and it was clear to the old man

and to his starving lawyer that some of these tests

resulted in the old man’s dying gut.

So they concocted a case against the FDA

alleging the farming and slaughter of atomic cows

and the Agency’s approval of the meat

for sale to the American public.

In his deposition, the old man swore he’d once eaten

a glowing steak and had vivid recollection

of a hamburger in Vegas that, though delicious,

had caused his hair to fall out and his teeth to turn yellow.

When the judge threw out the case,

the attorney committed suicide and the old man

gathered his newspapers and clothes in a trunk

and moved to Omaha

where he died in a field

deposing a loose-lipped cow

which had been dying

for someone to just listen.