Natural Selection

Every fall
We would hear them
Down in the lower field
Hurling sheep insults at one another
I only watched what followed
All of that bellowing
Once
I had to see to believe.
Two rams at 50 paces
Launching into the bobbing run of sheep
Colliding at full speed, head on
With a crack!
Then reeling apart
To do it
Again.

After that, I didn't need
Or want
To look
But every autumn
I could hear the boasting,
And the colliding heads,
like the crack of the bat,
Even in the garden
On the far side of the house.

Now as I watch
Persistent, painful, fruitless
conflicts play out
Old, head cracking patterns between
Spouses, politicians, countries,
That crack reverberates
In my mind
And I am reminded of natural selection
Among sheep