The Stag at Eve
       

In my cries I don't cease (some dumb bird)
when from the swinging trees a stag at eve

comes prancing, body dappled by the shadows
of dripping leaves. It's fall, after all, when

the land undoes its lingerie laces
and stands naked for the dark wood, balding

plains, for parking lots slick with strange water,
for hills growing lush in emptiness

and into this scene enters the stag, moon lunate
and swinging on a tether of leather

scored then cured, from one just like him a year
earlier. Some dumb bird, I bid him hello

and goodbye in a shriek so lusty he
turns his expensive head just to curse me.

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Copyright © 2014 Lesley Jenike All rights reserved
from Holy Island
Gold Wake Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission