Peter Douglas

A REBEGINNING

Thanksgiving eve, so the leaves were yellow like Sierra Nevada
and blew about like the breath and dead cells of a dry whistle
when I came to the intersection of my road and the main,
heading out to go see the night.  There stood a doe,
chalking a hoof on the asphalt, her hide green under my brights,
her tail loud, but in that small way that deer have about them.

I honked, and it began to sprint across the farther lane,
gathering itself slowly at first, but then like an old recreational plane
my grandfather used to use for puddle hopping
and postwar jaunts from state to united state, it found its strength,
snapping gravity like a rubber band -- neither of us saw the car,
and a black Mercedes is almost a beautiful thing, almost lost in the midnight foliage.

A gunshot is not a beautiful thing -- I took one last look.
Her tail twitched, heavy, like a metronome.
Roy Orbison and the Traveling Wilburys had been jacked pretty loud,
when I pulled over, and I couldn’t play it like that until much later,
when I had seen the night and was in it,
when I had forgotten the deer and was drunk.

Date of Birth: December 12, 1978 Location: Washington, DC Occupation: Actor Email: peter@cassidydouglas.com Website: http://www.cassidydouglas.com Publications: G.W. Review, The Hollins Critic, The Mind’s Eye, Paperplates, Rattapallax, Red Booth Review, Spank Thru, Writer’s Journal, Stirring V3:E3, V3:E5, V3:E6, V3:E11, V3:E12

- April 2002 - For C.C. and Mr. Shaman Midnight at the Hot Springs A Rebeginning Things that are Left at K-mart, According my Dream on Wednesday Little Shadows Anonymity Domestic Leaving the dining room Coup The New Gynecologist Dreaming of Grandma Anastasia Gathering vodka. - Stirring's Best Nature Poems - Rodin's Stare Attrition Hither and Yon Grace at the Top of the Food Chain Dear Alaska fraser river, december