Deer Trails:
Deer trails run on the side hills
………. cross county access roads
………. dirt ruts to bone-white
………. board house ranches,
………. tumbled down.
Waist high through manzanita,
Through sticky, prickly, crackling
……….. gold dry summer grass.
Deer trails lead to water,
Lead sideways all ways
Narrowing down to one best path—
And split—
And fade away to nowhere.
Deer trails slide under freeways
………… slip into cities
………… swing back and forth in crops and orchardsg
………… run up the sides of schools!
Deer spoor and crisscross dusty tracks
Are in the house and coming out the walls:
And deer bound through my hair.
by Gary Snyder
from No Nature
Pantheon Books, 1992
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