Deer in the Garden

Last night in my garden, a fawn alongside
its mother dipped their heads inside the early
blooms of summer, feasting on a patch of lavender

roses, the soft canes with their thorny
stems just damp from rain. The doe's body
curved away as her head moved towards

my gaze—I waited there and watched
them together. They looked at home
defoliating the flowers along their path of grazing.

Six in the evening or maybe it was four, the time
of day when twilight mimics dawn, yesterday
or even three days before, because I'm always

remembering them, their soft gallop afterwards
through the pyracantha around the white magnolia
tree— where they vanished somewhere without me

seeing. Escaping like the trespassers they
were yet causing no real trouble. Silent
in their departure—the way a moment

in life is born into being then vanishes
inside its own death, a row of bitemarks
on half-eaten petals the only proof.

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is the author of sixteen poetry collections. An eleven-time Pushcart Prize nominee, seven-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2021 Alice in Ruby Slippers was shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize. She is a graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts, MFA in Writing program.