DEER'S EARS (poem)

Deer’s Ears

   © 2000 by Dean Metcalf

November 14, 2000 7:49pm

Coming in from my outdoor shower. 18 degrees. Soft

gray light, snow, dark boles

of fir, lodgepole, spruce, tamarack.

Gray silhouettes come ghosting,

slender faces with alert, translucent

deer ears’ inner surfaces

reflecting bluegray snowlight.

They stop.

They walk toward me,

hooves crunching the snow.

They stop again, now

two armlengths away.

Wet black nostrils point at me

and twitch. They exhale small clouds of breath

which hang for a moment between us, then

slip away over their shoulders

aboard the cold night air

as it slides down the mountain.

The three does stamp the snow,

poke urgently toward me

with their noses.

Large brown eyes implore.

They speak:

         We are hungry!

         The snow is frozen hard

         and covers our food.

         Throw out old salad

         as you did last night.

         We are hungry!

Now you humans, distraught

over high rents and heating bills,

quit your whining.

They’ll be out here all night,

all winter,

if they live.

                                    ©2000 Dean Metcalf