Random Poem of the Day

I'm taking a quick breather at the Brooklyn Heights branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

I'm going to walk over to the poetry section and pick a book and find a poem to share.

Here we go....

Hmmm. This being the Business Library, there are only 2 titles in all of poetry (Call #811).

I pick Sam Hamill and skip August Kleinzahler. I find a short one, from page 96 in Destination Zero:

Sheep to Slaughter

Like a sacred cow on the Ganges,
I feel the years turn to meat and metaphysics.
I cannot understand. I look out at the world
and everything I see slides by
in a haze, or I go down on my knees
for prayer or sleep and shadows rise up
like icons. You, too,
chew on the same old questions -
our classical cud and useless benedictions.
Tender and un accountable.
The untouchable touches us.
What is beautiful alters.