For a Deer

I have no claim on this running doe

except that I am here and agog

Trying to catch her, keep her

in a little black box with a magic window

Somewhere I can see her again and again.

How is it that such a creature

Lives here among us

Weighs just what I do yet

cannot make an awkward move?

From whence this perfection

This polished haunch

these slender legs?

Boil me down and start me over

I want to run like that

Vaulting log and wire

Hitting with a thump and springing high

Bounding up the slopes that slowed me to a trudge

Before the change.

I've nothing to offer her but a reason to run.

Nothing to say but thank you.

For Mimi Hart, which after all means Deer