Wool-Gathering

WOOL-GATHERING

by KAREEM TAYYAR

Lately I have begun
counting sheep in the daytime.

It’s nice,
especially on an afternoon
like this one,

bumper-to-bumper
on a freeway that feels thousands
of miles from any pasture.

The sheep all seem to understand.

They gather around me as I offer
my recitations,

& listen with the patience of saints.

Later we move deeper into
the hills together.

I let them lead.

They know where the river is,
& how much further before we arrive
at the Temple of Stars.

— from Issue 4

KAREEM TAYYAR’s most recent book, The Prince of Orange County (Pelekinesis, 2018), was a finalist for an Independent Book Award, and his poetry and fiction has been published in a wide variety of journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Brilliant Corners, The Santa Monica Review, and The Writer’s Almanac. He holds a Ph.D. in English from U.C. Riverside, and he’s a recipient of a 2019 Wurlitzer Poetry Fellowship.

Leave a Reply