First taste we know and nourisher of life,
the essence of the mammal and the mother,
quarry of bone and skeletally white,
erupting from the gorgeous breast and udder,
elixir of warm-hearted things that love,
the matriarch of butter, luscious cream,
and holey cheeses, sacred marriage of
mammal and microbe, rennet, mold, and steam.
That firmament which holds our hopes, our claim
that we are not alone, that we live on,
is dubbed Her Way, and, by another name,
She claims all galaxies— indeed, the dawn
of human dreams was fed by ‘lactic stars
assuring us this world was Mom, was ours.