faded corduroy trousers
worn a week between washing
 
favorite long-sleeved flannel shirt
shedding alfalfa flake from last night’s feeding
 
     three a.m. turns the better side of night
     dark dressing for morning
 
incandescent bulb casting yellow-gray
spokes across back porch
 
boots stiff with hardened mud
waiting to be laced
                                           
     silhouetted horseflesh
     sleep as salt lick
 
clear sky visible through orchard trees
sprouting spring’s uneven puberty
 
trough water a charcoal mirror
scrivening wrinkled stars
    
     Big Dipper stretching toward Polaris
​     unbridgeable distances apart
 
red extension cord raveling from barn door
to hanging heat lamp warming straw
 
ewe's breath wet and weak 
as its crowning creation
                                    
      silence a life sign \\// flowing fetal membranes                 
                                   // now death 
                                   \\
glass bottle capped in rubber nipple
working lamb’s mouth with milk-coated finger