Bestiary for the End Times

Sharp-leaved milkvetch (Turkey)
 
Up in the mountains, days’ walk
halfway to the storied summit of Ararat
reaching across the forest floor where
the blue pines give way to bright, clear meadows
 
wide bowls of water mirror the Anatolian sky
and silver clouds of sharp-leaved wooly
milkvetch feed the last quietly grazing flocks
of countless centuries of milky, milky sheep.