Taurus the Stubborn Bull

Taurus was a very stubborn bull

He would sit out

Under the stars

And refuse to come back

Into the barn

And go to bed

When his mother called

No matter how much

She asked him

To go along

With all the other bulls

And do what he was told

Taurus was much too stubborn

And his head

Was in the stars

One night, Taurus was out

Far past his bedtime

And his mother called out

Telling him

That if he didn’t

Get into the barn soon

He would be in big trouble

Taurus didn’t feel tired

So he made himself

So stubborn

That he felt the pull of time

Slow down from a run

To a walk

Then a crawl

And then…

Stillness

Taurus was still

Up past his bedtime

But it didn’t matter

Because time was frozen

And with time

Went everything else

And so Taurus

Walked back to the barn

And trotted around

His now frozen family

His mother, his father

And all four of his siblings

Who were all standing still

Or already asleep in bed

Taurus had only ever been

In the yard

And the barn

But he had never been

In the house

Where the farmer

And his family lived

The house was off-limits

But Taurus was stubborn

And decided that nothing was off-limits

If you had already broken

One of the biggest rules of all

That time has to keep going
No matter what

And so Taurus the Bull

Walked into the farmer’s house

For the very first time

He walked through the kitchen

The living room

And he ate a few flowers

Out of the flowerpots

In the window sills

The farmer and his family

Were on vacation

In Toledo

So the house was available

For Taurus to explore

After he spent what would have been

A few hours there

Taurus wanted

To go even further

He began to visit

All the other houses

In the area

Seeing frozen families

Who were not in Toledo

He went into stores

And shops

And museums

And he traveled to other farms

And went to every corner

And crevice of the country

But Taurus soon got tired

And it was then he realized

That while time can stop

You can’t stop a two-year-old bull

From feeling sleepy

So Taurus walked

All the way back home

And when he got there

He got into bed

And unfroze time

When his mother

Looked over at the stall

Where her little Taurus sleeps

She saw him there

When only a second ago

She could have sworn

He was outside

Staring up at the stars

But she thought--

It must have been

My imagination

Because everyone knows

Animals have very active imaginations

And can easily lose track

Of things

Like small bulls

And time