Free Verse

Last night I saw a show

About a ram who didn't make it,

Starved in the last snow of the documentary season,

Before redeeming spring rains.

His kin left the scene,

While other things waited,

Or circled, seeking sustenance.

The cameras record how a creature becomes

Bone. I watch the edited best parts

On a small black and white--

And, even from this distance, confess

Until its last breath I hope someone

Stops and feeds the sheep.

This poem says I'm not helpless--

Though, in this, I am.

Ann Carter is a Carroll County native with roots back seven generations. She has an MFA in poetry from the University of Arkansas. She lives and writes in Eureka Springs, where her book of poems, Sweetness, is available at Prospect Gallery and Studio 62.