Dearly Missed

A deer in my cabin roadway regards me curious like a painter at his easel As twilight flickering, catches its coat, dappled patches of brown. "Are you okay?" It nods, a neck swoop down, in flourishes. "Do you want more apples?" It bobs again before fleet footed to the woods away. My cabin mate would have gaped in wonder but he's not here. He fell in love with barley whiskey. Kidney failure Cirrhosis That took his apple grin away. But not before his body screamed a spinning form in spasms to miss the fleeting hooves of deer. Poem composed: October 2020