Deer County
I’ve seen the night beating like a frightened heart.
An apparition appears out of nowhere —
I should have gone slower at that time of night
when objects loom suddenly. A deer zig-zags.
We all should compensate for the unknown.
We never know what lurks in the dark.
Fear stokes more fear, jolting us,
a deer bolting out of the dark —
finding a tuff of brown hairs on a car
or lose a windshield or broken engine block.
On rain-slick roads, when deer lunge
like heart attacks. We pull over after a thud,
find nothing but a small dent we could beat out
with a ball peen hammer. Or, find a deer
pulled to the side like a marker, red glass splinters
from a broken break light like blood splatter.
In a blink, every moment can change direction
and night takes your heart in its hand.
The unknown lurks in either light or dark.
We never see the inevitable coming.
If we could, we’d swerve,
sigh many heart-jerks, many tear-jerks.
Sometimes, we’d survive the deer combat zone.
Sometimes, we make it home in time, undented.
Editor’s Note: The stark two line stanzas in this poem emphasize the sudden jolt of an unexpected trauma, creating an undeniable allegory for life. Also, the first line is truly remarkable.
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