Tuesday, May 08, 2012

SOMETHING ABOUT SHEEP

by Lewis Gardner

Source: Financial Post

Let me tell you something about sheep.
You see them grazing complacently and you say,
"This is not mute existentialism,
This is stupidity," and they remind you
Of thoughtless masses swayed by demagogues
Or bowing passively to gods or fate.
But that is too narrow a perspective
On sheep.

In India, in 1967,
A tiger jumped a young shepherd;
His flock, moved by something primordial,
Ganged up on the beast and trampled it
To death; the shepherd was unharmed.
Now, won't that make you look at sheep
With more respect?


Lewis Gardner has published poems and plays in a number of anthologies and magazines, as well as more than 60 poems and light-verse pieces in the New York Times. Originally from New England, he lives in Woodstock, New York.
_____________________________________________________