Matthew Stark

The deer in this woods startle then start out
breathy stares the settling glassing over
from the trees a hesitant dripping snow
thatch droops then falls like folded paper wings

thinning mist fans out through the woods the trees
glimpse of ground here or there in this in which
lace layer of pine coarse and grey bedded
down with frost so step slowly please listen

hear one needle crack so to me the deer
hardly startle when already the head
is up to see the quick attentive ears
trembling in which cold set for a sound so

when soft sound enters the ear of the deer
ripples through its flanks cracks against the deer
one low bound the deer does not startle but
rests until it is time to go and goes