Wandering Deer Finds a Garden

Simply waiting

For all the traffic to pass by

This lonely street

The motion

Of deer, captured

In the sleek backdrop

Of summer foliage.

Holding itself inside

Of itself

The color leaks out

To be the lawn

I’d never set foot on.

Hubcap eyes,

Brown like mine

Round as the beginning of the moon.

Stark motion in the

Cold stillness of sunset.

Waiting on the little ones

Prancing shake-legged into the clearing,

They do not count me as an enemy,

They eat my neighbor’s flowers

With me looking on.

Only me to wonder

When will they melt back into

The density of undergrowth,

Tunneling their thin animal trails

Into the greenest heart?

Oh you will be back

On the crumpled edges of civilization,

You will come.

I know it in the way you leave this place,

I will see you again.