Thread: Feed my sheep
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Unread 02-05-2024, 08:56 PM
Alder Ellis Alder Ellis is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: New York, NY, USA
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Maybe:

The crow calls.
Beak-struck,
a lamb buckles.

And then, in S3, another clarifying hyphenation, “Drought-drained,” & I see no reason for “Through” to be capitalized.

Overall, impressively bleak. The image of S3, the ewe staggering through the feathers of the crow which, before being shot, was preying on the ewe’s lamb, is, when you think about it, over-the-top, but the extreme spareness of the dimeter lets it work as a rather extraordinary emblem.

“Feed my sheep” (another dimeter) stands provocatively against the last line, “Nothing matters.” Its biblical provenance (John 21) is perhaps irrelevant; it comes across, perhaps, as a reproachful appeal to a God who lets such things happen. “Nothing matters” sits uneasily between permanent fact & temporary feeling.
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