Poems by Jerome Gagnon
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Sleeping Deer in the Afternoon
by Jerome Gagnon
From Canary Spring 2022
Jerome lives in the San Francisco Bay Area adjacent to a 15,000-acre park, home to bobcats, white-tailed deer, coyotes, raptors, and the occasional mountain lion.
I remember the sleeping deer as they awoke in the grass,
heads tilted to the scent of us —
seven or eight of them, one a fawn,
up and running through the old orchard,
flying across the creek,
disappeared in the brush.
White petals drifted by
like frail coins, as we moved
closer to where they’d lain —
bent green still warm.
I mourn the dark trunks of the apple trees;
my arms couldn’t reach around them.
The orchard uprooted: hip-curve of hill
carved into lots;
where light dripped from branches,
the stare of gravel;
no more hum of black bees,
creek trickle.
I remember the deer, their flight as our breath held
and held —
trust they found another place to sleep
and pray no one comes across it.
© Jerome Gagnon