Dead Deer by David Groff

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 5, 2016   Dead Deer   David Groff

Bolt, thwarted vault, late brake, gasp of impact, temblor of thud— the beast drops on the blade of hood, ribs rip from their roots, hearts seize, the windshield goes dark as an eyelid curtaining to a horizon of blood, black glass laced with lightning—   I am hit with wheel, steel, doe embracing me backward as speed crushes me forward into a bursting hug, sternums to spines,   past last words, no extra second to follow the plan to tell God I am sorry, no foxhole repentance, no appeal to the fate-maker, my sentence incomplete, a fragment, a run-on,   no scenes spun out so fast that the brain convulses with conclusion and love—   I do not even think of you, cough no torn word for you to live by—   I mesh corpse into carcass, I am dead, dear, I leave you my velocity and there at the edge of the road I give you my fawn.            Copyright © 2016 David Groff. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Driving a Minnesota highway last summer, I had to swerve to avoid the fresh carcass of a doe. The car had gotten away; the deer had not. What would have happened if I'd reached this point on the road just minutes earlier, the moment the deer did?" —David Groff   David Groff is the author of Clay (Trio House Press, 2013). He teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at the City College of New York and lives in Manhattan.   Photo credit: Alan Barnett Poetry by Groff   Clay (Trio House Press, 2013)  "How to See Deer" by Philip Booth "Acts of Mind" by Catherine Barnett "Deer Hit" by Jon Loomis Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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