Could this doe be the fawn who was born here, in woods just beyond our house? She certainly makes herself at home, especially in my garden.
This Morning's Three Wishes
I wish the long-necked doe – on-alert
in the neighbor’s field – and her two spotted fawns –
in my field – could find a way over-under-thru
the stockwire fence that keeps them apart –
the buck-child brave adventurer given to sudden dashes
across landscape, his little sister timid, remembering
her lessons of hiding motionless while mother
forages somewhere distant; the doe who savages
my garden just as it was getting a thriving start,
zucchini, cucumber, tomato vines heady and brave
as a buck-fawn to conquer the world.
But that’s four wishes already –
for the mother doe, the bravo-boy buck,
the gentle little girl-fawn,
and alas, my garden.
Which wish shall I give up?
~ Taylor Graham
