Doe

            A wounded deer leaps highest

                                                —Emily Dickinson

 The first breath you take—
Cold, blossoming

Do you turn tail, run?
Or take your chances—

The summer fields boundless,
Mulberries, blackberries, blueberries,

Hunger, hunger
The sweetest fruit

Alive, blossoming—

Velvet muzzle, heart & hoof
Bone & breath

Stand still.
Be determined.

Even with the flesh ripped loose
Watch the wind,

See the way the oak leaves
Pattern the ground,

Step into the field,
As if for the first time.

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Elizabeth Mercurio is the author of the chapbooks Doll and Words in a Night Jar. She earned an MFA from The Solstice Low-Residency Program. Her work has appeared in Lily Poetry Review, Ample Remains, The Wild Word, Thimble Magazine, Vox Populi, and elsewhere. She is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominated poet and was named a finalist in the Cordella Press Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize and the Two Sylvias Press Wilder Poetry Prize.