The Sheppard

A thunder, rolling, pitches and growls. The Sheppard, leading, his sheep and fowls. A precarious steep, crosses and twists; Escape and evasion, a hunter's grip. Closer and closer, clouds do come. The rain and sleet, the coming undone. Awakening and edgy, the wolf howls. The bark, the hackles, a fright in the fowls. Stretching and moving, The Sheppard prepares. Warming and coughing, ready affairs. As rain arrives, at first as a mist. The wind picks up, as if in a fit. Seizing his flock, his staff, and girth; Ready for worship, ready for birth. The boom, the splash, darkness arrives. The sheep, the fowls, those are his lives. Thrashing and stabbing, a predator is felled. Retreating and taunting, they have his smell. Virtues of cardinal, those are his truth. Protection, survival, that is his ruse.