“Then [Jesus] said, ‘I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'” (Matthew 18: 3-4, The Jerusalem Bible)

Baby goats are birth bounding
at Sunflower Farm Creamery.
They hop and bop and stop
to wide-eyed stare, then

bounce, bounce, bounce
back to mama for a quick
(everything quick)
suck and slurp of milk

then off they go
boing, boing, boing,
stop, stare at the new world
outside their barn’s cement

clean floor, baby goat
pristine, the edge a soft
drop to the safe pasture,
its decorative split-rail fence

bordering the path from
the farm road, mothers and
fathers and laughing children
driving up to park and gather

baby goats in their arms,
nuzzle noses, all become
little children, this kingdom
of what surely must be heaven.

NOTES:

*from “Joy to the World” [Jeremiah was a bullfrog], song written by Hoyt Axton and made famous by the band Three Dog Night.