Roadside Deer by Elaine Baker

 

 


Elaine Baker mentors young writers in her role as Patron of Writing in local schools. She runs a poetry evening class and has taught at The Poetry School, London. Elaine is currently Poet in Residence at the Vale & Downland Museum, Wantage, Oxfordshire. She enjoys performing her poetry and has collaborated with musicians the Oxford Improvisers. Her poetry has been widely published including in Proletarian Poetry, Envoi, Mslexia, Brittle Star and The North. She has an MA in Writing Poetry.

Twitter: @kitespotter

www.elaine-baker.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You lie a windfall on the earth,

your fur against the dirt, ears flat.

Your underside is naked to the road,

icing white. Perfectly still.

 

You’ve stopped to watch a world you ran from.

Your eyes are open shut, they soak up the sun,

melting frost on blackthorn, thinning and slipping of ice,

a mute mouse threading between your wooden legs.

 

Cars pass. The sun tracks to the West. But I can’t rest.

 

I pull in and approach,

your stillness tearing up my breath.

I lie down with you, take your still life

in my arms, give you my heat.

 

I’ve stopped to watch a world I run from.

My eyes are open, set by the light from the sun,

my skin is heavy on the earth, spine naked to the road,

pale stone. Perfectly still.

 

You shiver, twitch, lurch to stand, then run,

dissolve among the trunks and boughs again.

 

 

Elaine Baker

 

 

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