300 Goats

Ice is an ominous element in “300 Goats.” Nye identifies place when she has her speaker refer to “Ozona” (Line 13), a town about 200 miles west of San Antonio, Texas. At the edge of Texas hill country, it’s likely that while icy conditions are not unheard of, they are less frequent than in a more northerly climate. In this poem, ice is expansive. It covers whole fields. It is a weapon, carried and wielded by the wind. It permeates the night, “swooping down” (Line 10) to chill and stiffen everything in its path.

Ice is cold and has a numbing effect. The speaker is not cold, but a warm, feeling person who worries about how animals will fare in the harsh conditions, particularly the little ones. Political rhetoric often points toward the next generation as the hope of a nation. However, a generation who is iced over, who becomes numb or perishes in an icy climate is not likely to lead anyone anywhere.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE, came into existence in 2003 but grew to notoriety after 2016, when border issues and immigration became a central political concern. Via the multiple ways one might interpret “ice,” “300 Goats” can be read through the lens of human rights as well as through the