Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Joshua Nearly's avatar

Amen should be the ending... but it just brought back a memory. In 2016, I hit a deer. It was along a dirt road with a steep cut on the uphill side, and a cliff to the left. It startled and leapt... was airborne before I saw it. Its left shoulder and the right fender of my truck collided just before it's front feet found the ground. I got out and it tried to get up and it had fallen on the cliff side of the road. I didn't know what to do, so I reached out and touched it as gently as I could. For just a second there was a moment of tenderness. Then it kicked, and pulled itself up and tried to run, and it's shoulder collapsed as it went over the cliff.

Death is so strange... and transient, in the moment it holds so much tenderness and terror. If I had a prayer, it would be that the tenderness counts for something.

Amen.

Expand full comment
Drew Dillhunt's avatar

YES: "this poem / can't resurrect / every deer. / It can only heal / three or four / at the most.

One of the most tender expressions of empathy I've ever read.

Expand full comment
123 more comments...

No posts