Short Commemoration: 4 Sheep Killed Today Vs 4 Students

I called them my sheepies and fed them every morning and afternoon about 20 pounds of hay to supplement their grazing. I got to know their individual bleating sounds, their smooth faces with dark eyes making contact with mine to show appreciation for the hay. They nuzzled my hand for slices of apple and allowed me to pet their soft noses and pat their thick mat of wool.

Last night I bid farewell and thanked them for their company and hoped they would forgive the human appetite…we had a right to subdue animals as their food source. As long as they were treated respectfully, perhaps they had a purpose.

They cried out for food this morning but I couldn’t feed them to keep their stomachs empty to make it easier for butchering. A one-shot Winchester rifle was used at close range in their enclosure. Their carcasses were hung in the cooler; their offal was carted to the outlying bush where the next morning a cacophony of birds like the ravens and hawks feasted completing Nature's life cycles.

So here I sit contemplating sorrow at the loss of four sheep and unable to contemplate the recent loss of 4 wonderful students at school when their lives were taken away by a mentally disturbed 15 year old classmate. How can parents survive the loss of their precious son or daughter with unique talents for humanity? They couldn’t prepare; didn’t have the chance to say goodbye. What universe will bear their heartache?

How is permission given by parents to arm their youngster with a powerful pistol filled with rounds of ammunition to do greater damage to his fellow students?

How is permission allowed for a mother to drive her teenage son armed with a war weapon, the AR15, to protest and protect property shooting two men and permanently disabling a third man? How is it possible for a society to worship unmitigated gun culture with permission not to buy a gun but legally to carry it?

How unthinkable for a congresswoman to pose with every member of her young family holding an assault weapon for a Christmas shoot commemorating Christ’s birth and wish for peace?

What travesty assumes that practicing classroom drills how to protect yourself in a killing spree at school is the right protection for the mental wellbeing of students? What if sheep feared entering their pastures were unable to enjoy the grass and water because there was possible death with every step?

What mentality won’t try to limit laws to stop killing of children? Gun ownership can be relegated for shooting animals for necessity of food, never for individual terror. Never for destroying families’ legacies forever.

Grief is permanent. Loss of youth is permanent. Death is permanent.

My sheepies will serve another purpose someplace.

My deepest condolences for unbearable family loss.

Annemarie Berukoff

My personal memorial to sheep...gone but not forgotten

Good morning, sweet faces, bleating for hay and apple slices,

Beautiful sheep, two-toed, rectangular pupils, warm woolly bodies,

Herbivores’ menu of any grass or plants as wild foragers,

Ruminants with multi-chamber stomachs to chew cud,

Excellent smell glands in front of eyes and on the feet,

Smart memories showing emotion by positioning ears,

Gregarious bunting and flocking for group defense,

Mother ewes’ deep bonds to lambs; a 10 year life span.

My dear sweet faces, soon enough your meat will serve us …

Such tender mild lamb to mince, grill, braise or roast,

A rosemary leg of lamb, a minty crisped rack of ribs,

A carnivore’s appetite satisfied on a menu of herbivores.

So nature decrees an ending and beginning of something

Sans appetite as an imperfect cycle of death and birth.