Flock

It has been calculated that each copy of the Gutenberg Bible . . . required the skins of 300 sheep.

                                                 -- from an article on printing

I can see them squeezed into the holding pen

behind the stone building

where the printing press is housed,

all of the squirming around

to find a little room

and looking so much alike

it would be nearly impossible

to count them,

and there is no telling

which one will carry the news

that the Lord is a shepherd,

one of the few things they already know.

Billy Collins, The Trouble with Poetry (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007)