Caprine

The bearded ones, the ugly bison,
The stinky oxen, puffed up, shaggy
And huge headed to look more massive,

In defensive formation, circling
Their rumps, their bearded, horned heads facing
Out toward the desperate wolf packs—

Never common as megafauna,
Not even in Pleistocene heydays
Of cave bears, mammoths, sabre-toothed cats,

Hanging on although all those have gone—
Hoofed tussocks, grim mounds, the arctic goats,
Stubborn as old-fashioned poets, snort.