The doe stares until I turn away –
when I look back, she is gone.
No sound to tell me where,
no movement of the leaves.
Only the wind – breathing.
You left like that.
No gasping, no torturous sobs,
just a closing of your eyes,
and I was alone again.
Now I wander the woods,
hike trails where families laugh.
Where couples with dogs
smile and whistle,
where music pulses with runners,
invade the stillness of this place,
where once we towed
our own kids and dogs.
The dream, the reverie
that comes from silence, I need.
When summer sun sears
through canopies of green,
when heat hazes the path –
a shimmer – where I can see
a hind leg, a hoof – you–
appear in the shadows.
KB Ballentine’s sixth collection, The Light Tears Loose, appeared last summer with Blue Light Press. Published in Crab Orchard Review and Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, among others. Her work also appears in anthologies including In Plein Air (2017) and Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace (2017). Learn more at www.kbballentine.com.
Zingara Poetry Review 
Hi Lisa,
I love the way you keep us bathed in poetry each day…thank you!
A question: What does the on either side of a poem’s title mean?
Alan
I’m not sure what you are seeing exactly but the title does have HTML tags ( ) on either side to code for italics. While they are usually invisible, some people have mentioned that these tags are showing up in the email subject line. I’m not sure how to correct it outside of wordpress.
Got it. I’m seeing “em” on either side of the title, with around each “em”. Too bad it can’t be deleted for a cleaner look, but it sounds like you’re constrained by WordPress.
Thanks for the quick response.
Happy Holidays to you!
Alan
With its sense loss in the past, juxtaposed with the vivid present, I can relate to this poem. It’s certainly about what it means to be alive.
What a lovely poem. I’ll have to read it again directly.