Carson City: Some Deer

Up King Street, past the currant bushes

and the housing tract we call Stepford

where sagebrush engulfs the exercise path

we meet the young buck we call Pinyon—

twiggy antlers, one prong-fork broken off.

He walks with us a quarter mile in peaceful co-existence

moving through the sage like water, pausing at times for a bite.

Parting from us as our path veers, he continues west into the mountains.

The other night, corner of Spear and Mountain,

there was Lodgepole or maybe Hemlock, couldn't tell which for sure

smooth antlers bright in porchlight, standing politely, nose to the door

waiting for someone to let him in.

Žižek: “Hegel's (rather obvious) point: the innocence

of 'paradise' is another name for animal life, so that

what the Bible calls the 'Fall' is nothing but the passage

from animal life to a properly human existence.”

Bucks stop traffic on Carson Street—don't know their own power—

or do they? What's next? Walk into the Legislature, request a hearing:

pro speed limit enforcement, contra economic growth? What if they did?

Today, the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds is occupied:

eight unfamiliar does and their bucks sitting in under the conifers.

State worker working her phone: "Aren't they wonderful?"

They recline peacefully, not making any demands.

Perhaps they should.

Appeared in The Weekly Avocet (1/4/17)