SPARK

Sheepskin Armor
By Annmarie Lockhart
Response (photo and poem)

…..

It’s a pastoral scene: a Sunday drive,

the Amish farm, cotton balls dot an

emerald landscape on a clear-sky

day. A picture doesn’t always

tell a thousand words.

…..

What gets me is the animal

scent, gamey and hot, like

waves of nausea, like

heat shimmers on a

highway, like the

mint jelly cover

that fails the

greasy job.

…..

The sheep don’t mind the way they smell.

They bleat and meander, vague and vapid

in the farmland dust. They go from fat and

fluffy, with wool coats in need of carding,

to skinny and new, stepping lighter,

moving faster. But their fresh-shorn

preening is short-lived. Dirt-speckled

fleece grows back, the sheep return to

the bucolic pasture, the autumn breeze

blows the odor away.

…..

Marauding predators don’t care much

for pastoral scenes. They come in

search of meat. I will not eat lamb.

Don’t ask me to cook it, and don’t dare

mention the milk. I just might be

a sheep in wolf’s clothing.

.

She
By Bobbie Troy
Inspiration piece

…..

she walked down the street

wearing a vest of vulnerabilities:

shyness, poor self-image

lack of confidence, naivete

…..

i offered her a coat

of protection and love

but she said, i don’t want it

i’m comfortable with my vest

…..

then she crossed her arms

around her chest

hugging herself tightly, tightly

as if to keep

her heart from breaking

.

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