Pronghorn Sheep in Wyoming

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Ruth HERE. She is living now in Paraguay and is sharing some beautiful early morning photos she took while birdwatching and a lovely short poem. Thank you, Ruth.

This week my husband and I are on the road, today driving through Wyoming. Below is the prairie and a few buffalo. The buttes, mesas, rock formations are breathtaking, as I’m sure many who read this might know.

Sage brush extends everywhere on the Prairie. This is a pronghorn sheep and they eat sage brush, as do over one hundred other prairie animals.

I wanted to share something this week, though I’ve had little time. I wrote this poem today, inspired by the endless sage and the sheep. I found the photo on Google.


PRONGHORN SHEEP AT EIGHTY MILES AN HOUR 

Late March, past my car window,
clumps of gray-green sage,
tough and dry as the land,
wave and twist in the wind
near Route 80.

Sage is everywhere,
like sunlight,

dotting ravines,
buttes, 
mesas,
the grassland
that stretches to
distant mountains.

to be eaten
by pronghorn sheep
and buffalo

all day
every day 
a feast of
stem and leaf.

Four sheep, 
grazing, 
heads down
in prairie silence
under a blue sky

come and they go. 

©Janice Scully (draft)

Thank you Ruth for hosting!