LAMBS IN THE SNOW
Today
the cold comes
in gray clouds
of blowing snow.
The little lambs
stand close to their mothers.
They think
the cold has come to stay.
Yesterday the sky was blue
and the sun warmed the land.
The lambs do not know
that sometimes
cold days make mistakes
and come again
after they should have gone away.
They do not know
that tomorrow will be warm again.
They have not been here
long enough
to know these things
and their mothers
have not told them.
My mother
is watching the lambs.
She will not let them
get too cold.
My father says,
"Next year
I will try the white-man's way
of breeding the sheep.
Then the lambs
will be born later,
when summer has come to stay."
My mother says, "Yes,
next year
we will try that way."
