The deer have become more plentiful
in this area. Restrictions against their slaughter
and the sensibilities of children
have had their influence. I understand
that it is they who eat our flowers,
not the raccoons, whom we had blamed previously
One resident of our community
has set up a trough
a kind of a free-lunch counter
in his back yard: an attempt, perhaps,
to preserve his foliage.
But it is like a bird-feeder,
and more and more deer come down now
from the reservation.
They show their cards. They are on Welfare,
it seems, and the utilization of food-stamps
is habituating. Yesterday, we had a brief encounter.
Two beauties were rending the tulips,
nibbling gently at the rhododendrons.
Looking at me accusingly,
it was I who was the trespasser,
someone concerning whom, whistles
would soon be blown, and officers
would arrive, with their pads, to make out the summons.
And I could imagine a landscape
devoid of us humans,
far in the past; or some time in the future.
Demons, deer, birds of paradise,
I’m sorry if I disturbed you.