The Goat

Lord, let me live as I will!
I need a little wild freedom.
a little giddiness of heart,
the strange taste of unknown flowers.
For whom else are your mountains?
Your snow wind? These springs?
The sheep do not understand.
They graze and graze,
all of them, and always in the same direction,
and then eternally
chew the cud of their insipid routine.
But I- I love to bound to the heart of all
your marvels, leap your chasms,
and, my mouth stuffed with intoxicating grasses,
quiver with an adventurer’s delight
on the summit of the world!
amen

from Prayers from the Ark by Carmen Bernos Gasztold

The photo is of a fancy gentleman we met on our last Bronx Zoo excursion.