Watering the Sheep
after Basho
An old frog
Jumps into the sky—
Splash!Dark Navajo boy
Sitting under evergreens
Eating hard frybread.A roadrunner, big
As a chicken strikes the pond—
Swallowing wet jade.Sheep and goats nibble
Sweet grass at the water's edge.
The sheep dog laps blue.The horned toad's eyes
Oblivious to the light
Wait for a buzzing.The lightning bird skips
Over the toad, over the boy's
Foot, into the pines.Heat waves hang above—
Even the tree's shade is hot.
His lips are sand dunes.Another frog jumps.
The sheep move onto ripe reeds
Chewing and splashing.* * *
Grandma kneads a cloud.
She lets it rise, heats a pan--
Bread waits for her sheep.
© 2002 by Hershman John.
First published in O Taste and See: Food Poems.
Huron, Ohio: Bottom Dog Press, 2003. 72-3
