For the Shepherd Who Is Also the Path the Sun Makes in Daytime

A good shepherd is a wonder in contrapposto, an artist

mapping the Serengeti with kingdom lines.

A good shepherd angles a lion’s eye, traps gazelles

in dry fields, copies a cheetah’s spots one leg at a time.

A good shepherd does not give you stones

when you ask for toast, does not ask you to work

without a burning bush—but owns a gate, uses a gate, pulls

the weeds and leaves the wheat on an altar of choices.

A good shepherd is a prince of peace when terror finds its full echo,

a creator in the wild where a predator, providentially, becomes prey.