the roe deer
standing by a brook that still flows
despite the late winter frost:
how he leans calmly
into this icy Lethe,
obol-eyed,
as if beyond the range of any rifle.
His velvet tipped points ripple
on the current formed
by his tongue’s languid motion
while behind him snow accumulates,
returning his tracks to oblivion.
His only audience
a breeze seducing conifers
on a white bed.
Even to himself
those antlers
in the mirror of the pool
go unrecognized.
Adam Hanover has an MA from the University at Buffalo and an MFA from Emerson College. His poems appear in The Innisfree Poetry Journal, Juniper: A Poetry Journal, The Opiate, and elsewhere. He lives outside Boston with his wife and their young son.