The Sheep Dogs by Russ Vaughn

The Sheepdogs







Most humans truly are like sheep



Wanting nothing more than peace to keep



To graze, grow fat and raise their young,



Sweet taste of clover on the tongue.



Their lives serene upon Life’s farm,



They sense no threat nor fear no harm.



On verdant meadows, they forage free



With naught to fear, with naught to flee.



They pay their sheepdogs little heed



For there is no threat; there is no need.







To the flock, sheepdog’s are mysteries,



Roaming watchful round the peripheries.



These fang-toothed creatures bark, they roar



With the fetid reek of the carnivore,



Too like the wolf of legends told,



To be amongst our docile fold.



Who needs sheepdogs? What good are they?



They have no use, not in this day.



Lock them away, out of our sight



We have no need of their fierce might.







But sudden in their midst a beast



Has come to kill, has come to feast



The wolves attack; they give no warning



Upon that calm September morning



They slash and kill with frenzied glee



Their passive helpless enemy



Who had no clue the wolves were there



Far roaming from their Eastern lair.



Then from the carnage, from the rout,



Comes the cry, “Turn the sheepdogs out!”







Thus is our nature but too our plight



To keep our dogs on leashes tight



And live a life of illusive bliss



Hearing not the beast, his growl, his hiss.



Until he has us by the throat,



We pay no heed; we take no note.



Not until he strikes us at our core



Will we unleash the Dogs of War



Only having felt the wolf pack’s wrath



Do we loose the sheepdogs on its path.







And the wolves will learn what we’ve shown before;



We love our sheep, we Dogs of War.







Russ Vaughn



2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment



101st Airborne Division



Vietnam 65-66





The Sheep Dogs by Russ Vaughn