This poem received First Place in the May 2023 Saturday Writers’ Poetry Contest. It can be found in Anthology #17, Writing Buffet.
without hesitation
crude seeds and leaf porridge
all consumed with cautious appreciation
Her face, like her legs, long and lean
with opaque eyes narrowly set
watched generations that followed
hurdling fences into realms
once foraged as their own
Her gray winter coat tousled
over haggard hips
bore passage for countless others
with innate grace now lost
to missteps of long ago
While others scorned
an unwelcome menace
to me she was The Old Lady
living proof that life can still be wild
for the aging and frail
But that night
to savage coyote eyes glaring
at an unwelcome interruption
she was a savored triumph
a rare Easter dinner
fully satisfying to none
In the twilight of her journey
soul bared to beckoning stars
I offered my deer friend
a reverent toast to all she was
with a full chalice of tears
© 2023 HSE
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