Doe, A Deer

Image: origin unknown

For Frank for the inspiration...

Doe, a deer,

a female deer

standing in ironic be-wild-er-ment

amidst a still-screaming clear cut.

Have you seen

the big yellow monster

that destroyed her home?

Blades that have never known

the ethics of a Ninja.

She now has PTSD

and is too numb

to grieve,

to dash,

to join the stumps in their collective shrieks

of amputation.

My eyes catch a glimpse

of a single flower that made it through –

Podophyllum peltatum –

Mayapple.

Eternal hope.

I’ll ask you again:

“Have you seen

the big yellow monster

that destroyed her home?”

It dwells within you,

you know.

The Destroyer –

That part of you that takes more

than you need.

That takes everything you need.

Look! She’s moving,

shifting her head so that

her big brown watery eyes meet your eyes.

She can See that you are human,

but she just doesn’t get it.

And neither do you –

And neither do I –

despite the long practiced walk and talk.

How is it that even those of us

who have awakened to the consequences of

our actions still largely

partake in hypocrisy?

It’s all about the fuel that goes into

the Big Yellow Monster

of You

and Me:

Insecurity,

Fear,

Loneliness…

These things drive the harvest rates

of that which is Beautiful –

both within us

and outside us.

So, it is time All

that we call for an alternative energy source:

Compassion,

Love,

Unity…

We start not by monkey-wrenching

The Destroyer,

but by bringing The Destroyer into

ecstatic relationship with The Creator.

I’ll say it again:

“We start not by monkey-wrenching

The Destroyer,

but by bringing The Destroyer into

ecstatic relationship with The Creator.”

Her udder is becoming painful

as it swells,

and there will be no relief.

The twins were dismembered

and disemboweled

as they did what ancestral memory

told them to do –

place your lovely white spots

in the glitter of leaf-sieved sunlight

and be still.

Two Mothers will mourn

and someone else

will refer to these and other casualties

simply as “negative externalities”

of Progress.

Look within.

Go within.

Redefine Progress

for yourSelf and

for our species

before you fuel your

next outward step.

© 2010/Jamie K. Reaser