I heard him at first, though barely a sound,
But I saw him, I saw me, on sinister ground.
I am the caution and stillness and sniffing the air,
I am the fearing the danger that’s not even there,
I am the ‘watch where you tread’ and the silence and hush,
The always on lookout, the hardest to touch.
I am the quickness and briskness and swiftness and speed,
I am the flash of a tail and a warning to heed,
I am the bounding and leaping and steam in the woods,
The danger apparent, the fear understood.
And I felt myself crying, for as soft as the breeze,
My beautiful deer melted into the trees.
Part of the series 'The Animal In Me'.