A skeletal stag standing ten trees tall
Hanging moss adorning His wide antlers, patches of rocky lichen covering His driftwood bones
Large cloven hooves stepping carefully yet purposefully among the bleached remains littering the forest floor
He alone reigns here, in this place beneath ours
Even the pines fall silent as He passes
Even the stones
The air is old here
Thick with a power lost to time
Only He is left; a dimming flicker in a collective consciousness
Keeping a lonely vigil in an ancient forest a thousand miles deep and a hand's width beside us
No breath is drawn here
The soft rattling of His timber ribcage is the sole sound as He moves
Ceaselessly
Without rest
To a place always changing, never quite there
The ossuaries lay in a heavy silence
He assures the eternal slumber of all who rest here
The hollows in His skull seem to observe them, undisturbed
He moves on
His name has been forgotten for millennia
This sacred ground has become but a fleeting memory
Few old gods remain, lost to the quickening of time
He remembers, as He stands keeper of this place
Of an age before ours
When they would polish the skulls of the hunt with holy oils in His name
Dancing wildly and unburdened around towering flames
Primal sounds ripping raw from reverent lips
Now He is all but a wavering in the annals
He pauses in His endless march
Raises His great antlers to the thick canopy above
He listens
Feels the shift -- another one has faded
He will most likely be the last of His kind
A somber sentinel tasked with ensuring the dead wake not from their final sleep
Ensuring the silence is suffocating
A deep, weighted vibration
As if the place under ours was itself thrumming with power
Though none remain who once spoke His true name in fearful whispers
He will outlast
For all will eventually come to know
The one they now call death

The ungrateful people here
Don't seem to appreciate deer
They tell me deer are giant rats with hooves
And I always think to myself
If deer didn't exist
And I told you there was a giant rat with hooves
You wouldn't want to see that ****?

I was making my way down
The highway,
Cornfields on both sides of me.
The moon shined even though
It was still day time.
The sky was a light lavender shade
That oozed into a faded blue
Twilight, you could say.
I caught a glimpse of a doe
And her baby
Walking through the endless field.
My mind wandered.
Where did they come from?
Perhaps they came from
Deep in the woods,
Where the birds sang
And the creek bubbles,
The sun seeps through the trees.
Perhaps all the animals got along,
Or maybe,
They came from an open field,
Maybe they had a family,
A buck, a herd,
Possibly even a few more fawns.
Maybe something drove them from there.
Maybe a gun,
Maybe a predator,
Maybe weather.
My mind wandered more,
Where were they going?
Were they looking for somewhere safe?
Or were they only trying to survive?
I wished I could see more of their journey.
I wanted to root them on.
Keep living!
Keep fighting!
Where ever you're off to, keep going!
Then the moment passed,
They were long out of my sight.
I hope they are still alright.
I hope they were alright.

You, my dear,
are very
much unlike
the rest.
Your antlers
have not yet
grown in
and you worry
they never will.
But the boy with
amber eyes
says that
yours will be
made of crystal
and not of
bone and
velvet.
☪

Afternoon,

alone in the woods,

enjoying the nature and it's beauty,

seeing the shadows that the trees were making,

out of nowhere, a deer appeared in front of me,

his beauty was unbelievable as if he was sent from heaven.

The color of his fur was so rare,

his whole body was colored brown with the mixture of melting gold,

his eyes were black like the universe with many stars in it,

and every star was different and represented memories and different emotions.

They showed what each star has survived and experienced,

love, hate, happiness, sorrow.

His antlers were big, strong and damaged by many fights,

he was the king of all the deer,

he was pure and brave.

But what really fascinated me,

is that,

when he looked into my direction,

he knew,

that there is,

hope in this world,

he knew,

that we have time,

he knew,

that we have a chance to make a difference.

I went hunting on a summers day.
To find an animal that could lay
on my wall for a long long stay.
I saw zebras, giraffes and lions at prey,
I saw elephants and tigers sleeping, they lay
I aimed the trigger at the nearest i saw.
I saw a deer fallen with a broken jaw.
I wanted to help the poor old fellow.
Oh! how could i hurt the one in sorrow.
I got out of the safari van,
I came out and gave it a hand.
I aided it till it regained it strength.
I looked at it as it went.
It made me happy, you know!
May be my wall can wait some more!

Do you hear that calm, frugal breeze?
The synced patter cadence off the road?
What was once a hunt for your feast
In a time not so long ago

Over the distant horizon,
the rhythm takes your morning run
Within sight is a lonesome deer
Within scent is a stillborne fear

Exalted whispers of the ancestors:
"Exhaust it to death, predators."

(2017)

If I could take the failure,
What sweetest joy I 'll have!
I 'll, then, send a thousand deer,
At least! To tell my kind.

Antlers brought their messages;
They brewed a lot of them,
That Mother Nature asked me why.
"To live!" so I exclaimed.  




E.