i.
i awake, startled,
as though falling out of bed,
the clock read one a.m.
but something must have
awakened me

ii.
as i walk down the stairs
my eye catches movement
just outside the window
at the corner of the house
down the steps, into the living
room, as i see someone step
past the window again

iii.
looking out the picture window
the garden stands like a negative
sharp contrast in full moonlight,
shining on a family of white-tail deer

iv.
one stands at the corner
of the house beneath
the window there just
feet away from me
as I close with the window
my deer freezes in alarm
staring back at me

v.
he must not see through
the window in the dark
for my deer goes back to
eating the dried remains
of the chelone lyonii
i have left standing, through
the new-fallen snow