Cows And Cattle

A Texan rancher Samuel Maverick, Who never his calves and cattle branded, Caused maverick to mutate off cow-shed, And gave birth to a word in time to tick. Ere it breached borders native and national, Maverick meant ‘all cattle unbranded’, Mutating to ‘master-less quadruped’, And thence to mean ‘one unconventional’! And now this minister— maverick calf, Who, all but lost cabinet’s lower berth, Talking of cattle-class travel in mirth, When he guffawed to win a half-wit laugh. Ere, ‘hidebound’ meant skinny cattle of drought, Bare to bones and ribs all but sticking out; But hidebound now means man narrow-minded, Provincial, parochial, of petty-head! ‘Holy cow’, one may say to interject, Oft meaning, ‘sacred cow’, mixing a fact; Holy cow a cow is one scarce can touch, We have many nigh hard to humour much. Comes ‘cow’ from Sanskrit holy ‘gau’, Comes cattle from Latin chattel— Movable wealth French calls capitale, But Capital’s cows ‘lone seem holy now! To migrants ere cattle was sole money, Domestic to the Romans was ‘Pecu’, From the indo Aryan Sanskrit ‘pashu’, Today e’en prayers go pecuniary! Words ne’er respect a boundary line, As birds and religion, as music, But man’s e’er busy borders to define; May be world can do with a maverick. ___________________________________________________________ - The ways with words | 03.10.09 |