"Husband Sonnet One" by Lisa Jarnot

Husband Sonnet One


o calm sheep in the fields asleep

be quiet while my husband sleeps

ride bicycles or drive your jeeps

in pastures where the snow is deep

the roads that bend o pay no heed

nor wonder where the neighbor speeds

nor ponder at the road’s sad fork

just plow on forward brave and dark

like Dante in his mid-life’s wood,

a sheep’s mid-life is stout and good

like beer that ambers from a tap

or maple running wine tree sap

you sheep of silence play along

in dreams my husband sleeps among



Source of the text - Lisa Jarnot, Night Scenes.  Flood Editions, 2006.

TJB: Jeep for sale—cheap. Nodding at children’s verse, Frost’s diverging roads, & the path to hell, the poet finds quality time for married life.