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Provisioned
- University of Pittsburgh Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
64 Provisioned The goatherd shouldered a mile of wire fence and strode up the mowing— in their makeshift pen, brown-hooded, his Boer goats faced north to follow his progress— where he drafted a meadow, laying a circular grid of solar-powered line. All summer I watched him work, setting his field over the field, twenty goats grazing wind-driven florets to reveal the granite below, starting on a distant rise and clearing again the sapling-threaded and stone-filled pasture. Once we spoke. I asked after the goat with the pendulous sack at her throat. She has no pain, he said, so she can live out her life. Sometimes goats will isolate a weak one, but they accept her. By midsummer the goats know the sound of my voice, the shape of my dog and come 65 to the fence line when I walk the matted trail. At night I shine my headlamp on the flock. Some sleep in pairs, their backward-curling horns safely angled away from tender flanks. I scan the portable loggia for the goitered one and find her browsing August brush with a companion. Soon the goatherd will coax them across the footpath to commence the southern face—setting the field over the field to reveal the field beneath. [34.230.84.106] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 06:58 GMT) ...