Diana Darby ** "I V" ** Intravenous

Close Enough To Touch

Two deer,
a mother and her fawn,
came to my backyard this morning.
I had been missing them,
wondering where they were
and if they would return,
when suddenly,
they were back.
It had rained all night
and the yard was alive with new growth.
Overnight,
Trees seemed to have sprouted branches and leaves.
Squirrels and rabbits ran and hopped in every direction.
It looked like some kind of “after party”
from the set of Wild Kingdom.
Even the birds dropped in to say hello.
I watched the mother deer stand protectively by her offspring,
with ears as wide as saucers.
They looked up at me,
the baby an exact clone of the mother,
except smaller and much crazier.
She ran from tree to tree
in wild bursts of uncontrollable energy,
like Trouble used to as a puppy.
She bent her head down
and tried to jostle with her mother.
Occasionally her mother played back with her,
but mainly she just stood watch.
I ran and got my camera and started taking pictures of them.
I called the fawn to me
and remarkably,
she came.
I couldn’t believe it.
I felt like some kind of Dr. Doolittle
talking to the animals.
She was about fifty feet away from me now,
looking at me,
wondering what kind of creature I was.
Her mother followed behind her,
much more wary.
Both stood there staring at me,
while I stared at them.
I wanted to touch them.
I wanted to let them know that they could trust me,
that I wouldn’t hurt them
like other humans,
that I wasn’t some idiot with a gun,
just a depressed writer with a camera.
But when I reached out to them
they ran up the hill and disappeared.
I tried not to be unhappy,
but rather remember,
for a moment,
I was almost
close enough
to touch.