Panels on boards,
gates bent preceding us
to plug the holes in corrals
to brand calves—we may
never live long enough
to repair all the past bravado:
the wild and woolly urgencies
intensified to explode into
crashing crescendos. Instead
we move to a slow routine
sorting cows from calves
who endure the process
knowing soon
it will all be over
and back to grass.
