Tag Archives: wild

                               The deer in that beautiful place lay down their bones:

                               I must wear mine.

                                           – Robinson Jeffers (“The Deer Lay Down Their Bones”)

Secreted within steep brush and granite

to browse the fresh and tender Buckeye leaves,

the fragile innocence of deer seems tame—

safety but a bounding leap away.

Were we so unengaged to see ourselves

as novelties, we might pause more often

to look out upon the urgencies of men

and women inventing new shenanigans

to keep us shackled to our egos

as redundant and unnecessary weight—

were we so rational. How we envy deer

their shrouded bowers where they can feed

themselves. Nearly as free as deer

in the rocky cliffs above, the doe can see

the calves we have been looking for.