Well Fed

Paul Sheppard

“Am I a sheep?” - Fred Rogers

You were never “good enough” they will say

Because you worked multiple jobs

and taxpayers put food on plates

Because you made dinner every night

but were not there when school let out

Because new shoes needed to be

one size up, needed to last

Because you never drove to town

… because you never drove

Instead

You fed stories, a drafty home

insulated with books

You fed well. Not heaping plates,

but good, caring food well

You built community, of blood

from whence your blood came

You showed the fit of family is flexible

and that grandparents are miracles

You drove us nuts and, like a shepherd, you drove us home

If anyone is a sheep, you are.

Paul Sheppard, originally from Rosseau, Ontario, currently lives with his small family of human and non-human animals in London, Ontario, where he works as a neuroscience researcher. His work is forthcoming or published in The /tƐmz/ Review, Soliloquies Anthology, The Trinity Review, diceroll, and Paper Cranes Literary Magazine. He recently began training for a marathon so is probably on the brink of a midlife crisis.