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Bottle Baby

bottle%20bably-small.jpg
Sheep trail
photo by Sharon O'Toole

She was a fine ewe
With a crackerjack lamb.
Wintered on the Red Desert
Found a buck
Followed the truck for corn
Gave up her fleece
Made the long trail
Down the Atlantic Rim
Gave birth in Loco
Kept her lamb right with her
Dodged coyotes, eagles, crows.

When the bunch trailed out
For summer country
I found her
Against the cattle guard
Lamb right there.
She looked with wise eyes
Udder ruptured
Flies at her
Laying eggs.
Plenty there for
Maggot babies.

I snagged her lamb
Hog-tied him on the flatbed
Called the neighbor
“Would you please come?
I have no pistol.
Can’t leave her
Eaten alive. Like this.”

My knot worked loose.
That lamb rode unfettered
All the way home.

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About Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Sharon O'Toole
Pat and Sharon O’Toole are ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley near Savery, Wyoming, right on the Colorado-Wyoming border. They raise cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and children. Pat “immigrated” from Florida in 1970. He attended Colorado State University, where he met Sharon when both worked for the campus newspaper. Sharon grew up on their ranch, where they live and work with her father, their daughter, son and granddaughter (soon to be grandchildren!). Pat is a “water buffalo” and has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1986-1992), on the President’s Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, and is the current President of the Family Farm Alliance, which advocates for farmers, ranchers and irrigators. Sharon is an author, poet and journalist. She writes extensively on Western issues and is a columnist for “The Shepherd” magazine. Pat and Sharon are the parents of three children: Meghan, 27; Bridget, 26; and Eamon, 20.
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