First 5 Minute Poem: Dead Deer

Sam has been thinking about adding "5 minute poems" to the blog. I think it is a great idea except I don't write too many poems. Maybe I'll dust off some my old ones or maybe I'll get inspired to write some new ones. Anyway, I like this one that Sam wrote.

Dead Deer

I had walked around it for months

Not looking at it

Avoiding the smell

It had died right on the trail

Unlike the ones that had died in the grass, this one was

Slowly melting away

The birds had not found it

“They must have smelled it” he said

But they would not come into the trees

So instead of a sky burial, this one was turning

into the ground on which it lay.

Its frame only a shell

with holes in it.

Its bones were starting to show.

It was cold now, January,

and it no longer smelled.

I talked my eyes into looking.

In that half-light of the woods in winter,

I could only barely make out where the skin ended

and the earth began. It’s neck was arched,

head towards the tree.

Its dying pose.

(Sam)

January 2008

I took this photo back in September while piloting the Raven from Squaw Bay to Cowlitz Bay. This is what Sam and I call the "big field". It is the field that used to have a airstrip.

Today I sampled some of the apples we picked in the west orchard. Still rot free but a little on the dry and rubbery side. Still more cleaning and organizing to do in the cottage though it is quite nice to have the "Costco" shed up. This shelter now houses the tractor.

Where are the deer this time of year?

Since about mid December I've been wondering about this. I usually get a chance to scan across the big field south of the house most mornings and evenings and, except for the last three weeks, there are usually several deer out and about. Perhaps its because the rut is over and they are all tuckered out from mating. ?

However, Otto and I flushed three large deer from a thick patch of salal just today. The shrubs were so thick that we couldn't see them though they were only about 15 feet away. After being spooked, they bounded off and we had only a moment to watch movements. This was about noon and it was raining lightly.