deer talk

by Gerrie Fellows

shout-louts
clod-footing through mud      
odd body bright things
not ear-lifting
to wind    body    tree
squash underfoot
bark crisp tasty gills

watch    little body    
the wind
does not enter
with nose talk
hoof tapping
you are    ear up
and shifting
wait    

lift nose slow
only their light and dark
their out-of-place
not going between the trees
only in clear space
the hind-hoofers
strange ones under birch roof
wait

ear snap
eye gone
odd bodies   
take their spell away  

fast    little body
into ferny place
soft under hooves
through leaf net
into tree shade
frond flitter
ear-lift to leaf shift
nose to body reek
hidden
in sweet nodding cud
under stipple grass

in myriad