The Hawk Outpost 7:40pm
The Deer here are the colour
of very early Spring
They emerge from the undergrowth
like apparitions materializing
from rounded ears & noses
necks & torsos
heading for the neighbours’ carrots
on high-stepping dainty hooves
pausing only to blend Their buff coats
against a lawn
of very late winter
The Hawk Out Post 12:29pm
In The Little Wood
behind Our House
The Deer hide
and come out every evening
to feed upon the neighbour’s grain
and decorate Our Lawn with Their Trottings
returning to Their Wood
They know so well
as I know only by Its distant façade:
under clouds edged in darker grey
a bank of scrub spruce
concealing creatures
Who may never know
The Sky
The Hawk Outpost 8:15pm
I looked from The Sky’s wispy clouds
threading overhead
to last year’s bamboo crop
the colour of This Year’s Fawn
Who emerged from new shoots
like magic
to test The Neighbour’s Offering
of a scoop of grain
Joanna Gilman Hyde 