All my life, the animals have been fleeing,
the eagle around the river bend, saying adios
with its white tail broom, the ring-necked snake
hardly bigger than pencil lead startled on my carpet,
S-curving at super baby snake spe
ed for the bookcase.
Orpheus, you would have called them back with your lyre,
enchanting the animals away from their fear, the chickadees
flocking with juncos at last, the red squirrel forgetting his furious
tail-shivering chatter when I walk past his royal ladder of hemlocks.
You let the lions lie down with your heart. Have no fear,
you said before Harpies severed your head and set it afloat
like a message in a bottle. The doe-eyed deer stares
as if waiting for your song then bounds away,
silently clapping her white tail, the music where I live.
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