On April the eighth in Raha,
near Abu Dhabi,
Daniel watched sixteen cows gather under a tree
like plastic toys
stationed under the branches,
sheltered from the insistent heavens—
they were trying
to make sense
of the sky—
Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds,
how he thunders from his pavilion*—who?
certainly not cows.
Twenty minutes later, at 4:10, Daniel witnessed
the sixteen fall dead, like the sudden darkness
of a blown string of lights—
a clap of thunder echoed into the heavens.
*Job: 36