The Deer, by Lynn Pattison

The Deer, Alexa Karabin (USA) 2020. Click image for artist site.

The Deer
           (after Alexa Karabin)

and here is where you closed your eyes      curled 
thin legs      deflated      after I drove off in a panicked blur   
 
remorse keeping me awake till now    when I return 
to speak regret     crouched in woody scurf and duff I turn
 
myself in     throw myself on the mercy of your still heart 
as a jewel sun decides to rise in earnest      
 
turning you golden and the air fills with skippers 
mulberry wings     swallowtails and blues who know nothing 
 
of sin or why I lay ferns and leaves over cut and wound   
sitting shiva as beetles begin their service     
 
garlic mustard and hellebore nod       your tongue still 
fragrant with corn and apple      fur dew-shining    
 
my whispered mea culpas stir the hair at your ear    
scant reparation for all that’s been taken  

Lynn Pattison

Lynn Pattison is author of Matryoshka Houses (Kelsay Press, 2020) in addition to three other poetry collections: tesla's daughter (March St. Press); Walking Back the Cat (Bright Hill Press) and Light That Sounds Like Breaking (Mayapple Press). She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times and for inclusion in Best Microfiction. Pattison’s work has appeared in Ruminate, Moon City Review, New Flash Fiction Review, The Notre Dame Review, Rhino, Smartish Pace and numerous other publications.