i learned just yesterday
in the greedily snatched moments
between work meetings and
that focused training and the fat
round note of robin’s speech
that a male columbian black-tailed deer’s antlers can grow up to one-quarter of
an inch in a single day
and some species’ antler growth rate is much faster than that
i enjoyed just yesterday
as i hoisted weights until sweat pooled
then made the dash down, out, and through
the tall dry grasses of my yard
camera replacing dumbbell
that my young friend has an older male pal, or father-uncle-brother whose
many-pointed full rack heralds dear deer’s
and the gentle-not-shy younger is in full possession of his connection to me
despite his older friend’s instinct to hide
i endeavored just yesterday
while crouched behind the rock beneath apple tree
to capture some images
for phenology’s sake
as violet-green swallows swirled over head
that could demonstrate the new heights that deer’s knobs have reached and
in the moment i renamed him, Notch
for his left ear whispers a story whose details i can only fabricate: the why of the
split in the fur-felt of this sweet, now oft-visiting friend
and in all the moments of eye-to-eye contact, photorecording his antler progress
- much like my mom marked our heights and ages on the door
jamb as we grew up -
i felt at one with the marvel of him
