All We like Sheep

David R. Slavitt

No sheep would ever say, or, all right, think 

 "The shepherd is our Lord." They are not good 

 with metaphors but, stupid as they may be, 

 they know that the shepherd sooner or later will come 

 with his curved knife and the sheep always run 

 whenever they see him. They run from his dog too, 

 because it bites, but neither one of them means 

 any good to sheep. On the other hand goats, 

 forgetting their native caution, come when they're called 

 and even learn to nibble（轻咬，啃） out of your hand, 

 denying what's real for these sentimental moments 

 their herdsman（牧人） allows them in their foreshortened lives. 

 The knife waits in its sheath（鞘，护套） for them too, 

 so, if they're smarter than sheep, they're also dimmer, 

 not having learned Abraham's hard lesson. 

 Matthew's peculiar story about how Jesus 

 sorts out the sheep and goats assumes that it's hard—

 they separate themselves, the believing goats 

 on one side and the fearful, atheist sheep 

 all on the other, nervous even there, 

 to embarrass us, which is why there are no scape-sheep 

 wandering the wilderness for our sins.