Sheep and Stars

* Jesus pray for me
* David pray for me

+-----Sheep and Stars; The Thoughts Of David While Holding Goliath’s Head, Seconds Before The Raucous Cheering Of Israel’s Army

I remember now those slingshot
dreams beneath the moon shivering
in the coldest air,
winter’s cruel acrimony against
shepherd’s skin, lying supine pressing
myself against a tightly fit flock of
sleeping sheep, my head on warm wool
hurling rocks at heaven
trying to intercept the path of a
shooting star. “These are brothers,
these are sisters” I assessed
at the time. There was no hesitation
of conflict, no courage crisis when
the lion advanced against us,
dried blood on the mane, or the
bear of brawn brandished fangs to
put me in flight, I grabbed leather.
I pulled from my pouch the sharpened
stones. The rule of the fold,
in the capricious wilderness
where future Kings are culled to reign,
has always been, simply:
"God protects me, I protect the flock."
So I have already sworn my love
to Israel, that it will forever stand…
no matter how tall and imposing
the Philistine, or how heavy
his massive and putrid head.

---------------------1 Samuel 17:32-49
David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head.  David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!” David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.