Monday, December 19, 2016

December 19: Driving Home, Totaled Car, "As the Deer"

The other day, as I was driving home from work, two deer galloped across the street in front of me.  All of the traffic came to a standstill.  I have had a few vehicular encounters with whitetails.  Once of them resulted in a totaled car.  So, I knew to wait and watch.  Everyone else did, too.

It's a common story in the the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Any Yooper can relate to it. 

I had this poem published in the anthology The Way North a few years ago.

As the Deer

by:  Martin Achatz


As the deer lopes through dark woods
So my soul chases the Lord, over
Birch, fallen and mossy, victim
Of June storms, wind, rain
Shaking its white trunk and limbs
Like God’s voice on the mountain
With Charlton Heston, deep as flood
Water.  Before dawn, the deer leaps
In fog, sure hoofs lifting, reaching
For the true path from tree to tree
To pool to boulder to gully,
Panting, thirsty for running water,
Life-changing water that saves,
Washes leather tongue with the taste
Of God, the wild and sweet raspberry of it.
The black river rises from forest,
Divides pine and maple in two,
As the heavens from earth, night from day,
Seas from land, beast from human
At the beginning of creation.
The deer bounds into the black river,
Into twin beams, the eyes of Yahweh.
Praise God for car insurance.

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1 comment:

  1. Not sure what's going on - I'm no longer getting email notification when a new post is posted here - it's not in the trash either and when I try to re-sign up, it tells me I'm already signed up...are you intentionally cutting me out?!

    :-)

    Technology. Never fails to fail us

    ReplyDelete