Their brother sometimes comes with them
But mostly, they come alone--just the two of them.
They are getting braver which may not be a good thing, in the end.
They don't startle at every sound.
The man next door walks down his driveway towards the garbage cans.
The cans make a noise as he tosses in his trash.
They glance his way for a moment, then continue grazing.
They are not bothered by the cardinals and chickadees feeding.
One of them watches the feeder swing, perhaps interested in the seeds.
When the older brother, born the year before them, comes, he stands back and watches. He might eat a kernel of corn. I've seen him lick them and clean their ears--copying what their mother did for them.
They lick each other now that she's gone.
Someone said they saw a deer carcass at the abandoned house on Traylor road. Buzzards were hovering around.
It was probably their mother--she's been absent for two weeks now.
She probably went there to die quietly.
The fawns will survive the coming winter. They are putting on weight.
I put out the corn everyday for them.
(c) Glenda Kotchish 9/28/2021
Be quiet. Be still. Don’t move a muscle. You think you will not cause change? Not true.
Just by being, you are causing changes. Every breath you take, changes something, moves something, colors something.
What if you stop breathing?
You can’t escape this, Even in death, you continue to change–your body changes and you cause changes. Your decomposition will give off odor and you will become nutrients in the soil. The bacteria will consume you, change you and become other things. Your energy passes into other forms.
Embalmed and placed in an airtight vault where you will not succumb to deterioration? You will take up space my friend–your presence will continue.
A pebble in the flowerbed, buried under a weed, flew up from the weed wacker and hit the sliding glass door. A tiny pebble–moving at just the right speed, striking at just the right spot, shattered the glass. I watched the glass ripple and break into tiny pieces. The crackling sounds were eerie. Every few minutes the cracks would ping as the break spread to the furthest edges of the door.
I put up a sign. Don’t open this door. Danger, broken glass–a reminder for myself.
This happened at home–my safe place–a place where I go and collapse on the couch, flick on the T.V. and tune out of the world and all the things that happen out there. Nothing happens here. From the couch, I look out the sliding glass door at the birds and the deer who come nibble on my plants and drink from the bird bath. They share the seeds I put out, the birds and the deer. But now that view is cracked and fuzzy, too.
It was May. School was almost over for the year, even now it was only half-days. After class, what to do with the rest of the day–go home? Boring. Not just boring but the noise of his sisters and mother, the T.V. blaring reality shows was too much to take. After the chaos and roar of school, all he wanted was a quiet place to–to what? Think? Rest? Just be.
The sun was hot for May, 90 degrees. He put on his baseball hat and sunglasses, swung his backpack over his shoulder and instead of riding the school bus home, he strode off the school grounds and headed to the river–through the suburban neighborhood of manicured lawns. The streets were shaded by huge magnolia trees, chestnuts and oaks. An occasional car speed by him as he walked–facing traffic.
Finally, he came upon a path to the river, a path through the woods–a deer path. He followed it, past the creek, behind the houses, down to the river bank. The river was wide and fast–nothing but water and ripples marking where the current flowed. He sat down on a fallen tree trunk, tossed his backpack on the ground and rested with only the river noises for company.
It only took two days before the neighborhood social media, “Nextdoor” buzzed with comments–a suspicious person in a baseball hat, The police came–trespassing was the charge.
