Deer in headlights

An elegy written along a rural Oklahoma road.

Deer in headlights


Neck arched,

just so.

It stretches

towards the cloudless sky
captured in the blank
behind the eye.

It slumbers.

Grass provides a softened nest
where rests the rough beige hide
that did not make it 'cross the road.

It lies.

No more will white of tail
flick the flies that gather.
Forgotten in the cold,

it stiffens,

bloats through warm Spring days.
At night, it's lit by speeding
headlights that pass it by.


Kåre Enga © 2004

Catalogue number: [161.74]
13 april 2004.