The first-person narrator of the poem is a compassionate visitor to a remote Texas ranch. Lacking direct experience with agricultural survival, the speaker projects human vulnerabilities onto the animals left outside. This individual feels an intense sense of responsibility for the environment, actively wishing for divine or external protection for creatures exposed to harsh weather.

The speaker's friend is an autonomous individual who lives entirely alone on a remote property near Ozona. Tasked with the daily realities of agricultural life, this person maintains a highly practical perspective on nature. Instead of worrying about the icy wind or attempting to offer artificial shelter, the rancher places complete trust in the inherent survival instincts of the livestock.

A herd of 300 animals living on a remote agricultural property in Texas. They exist in a space between wild and tame, cultivated for human use but still reliant on their own natural instincts. The herd features varying sizes, with the smaller members supposedly seeking out the larger bodies for shared heat when temperatures drop.