The Rockport/Fulton Deer

Whitetails, four—no, five-- varying in age

Stopping to examine us, full of beauty and suspicion,

Now walking slowly into the grass

Now stopping again to show their beauty full.

Their coat of brown is the color of a Visigoth shield.

Their eyes flash, the flash of Greek satyr eyes.

Their fine-boned bodies brace for flight,

But we are no threat, and

Satisfied that we are good,

They walk away.

--February 16, 2013