I had been running...

I had been running.

Motionless,

He stood just off the trail


Seen suddenly,

Yet maybe

Having been there all along.


October sun,

Deep blue sky,

Between afternoon and dusk,


Grass belly high,

Wild rose hips, willow thicket,

Reds, greens, golds.


His coat, a silver brown,

White collar

Underneath his chin.


Black-liquid eyes,

A charcoal visor,

'Neath his sweeping crown.


I paused;

He watched me pass

And then we disappeared again.


A whispered breeze 

Tugged at the trees;

The lake lapped at its bank.


Mule Deer, Photo by Tupper Ansel Blake, 
United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 
2001 (Public Domain)


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