Neighbors

Three deer bound lightly along the footpath outside the back pasture fence,

flashing white tails and bellies,

ascending the wooded hillside in graceful leaps

and take the old rock wall on the ridge as one.

~

They have ascertained hunters cannot approach the houses along the forest edge and made their home here.

~

The trees are young.

This wood was once a pasture filled with horses

and long ago, an older wood and the deer.

My courtyard garden is safe from destruction.

There are too many fences to leap and good foraging next door.

~

The doe that had two spotted fawns lives in front of us.

One was hit by a passing car out on the main road.

People speed, deer misjudge.

Protected here, they eat the fallen apples in my next-door neighbor’s front yard.

Barking dogs give pause for a moment,

but gauging the menace correctly, they go back to their meal.

~

My neighbor says there is also a buck with eight points in the wetland between the houses.

I have not seen him, and now he will lay down his antlers for the year,

no longer needing them to fight.

~

We also wish to lay down our garden implements,

listening only to the snowfall,

tiny pinpricks of sound piling up,

the drifts at first clean and blinding purity.

~

Gradually, tiny black snow fleas fall from the trees,

until melting snow exposes the land.

~

Then the antlers will return,

soft encased in velvet at first,

swiftly growing bones to be used as weapons,

and again discarded.

~

The yearly antlers shed,

calcium to sharpen the teeth of mice and strengthen their delicate bones.

Find them in the woods and fashion them into knife handles,

or better, into buttons or prayer beads,

beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.

_______________***_________________

Thank you for taking the time to read my work.

This poem is one of seventy-two celebrating the micro-seasons of the traditional Japanese calendar. It was originally published in Scribe on the Medium platform by editor Thomas Gaudex. With a Medium subscription, you can follow my list and read poems in the cycle here or look for the poems here on Vocal over the course of the upcoming year!

This current season of winter is called tōji- (冬至) Winter Solstice. It is the fourth of the six winter seasons, hinging on the solstice.

The three micro-seasons of tōji are:

December 22–26 Self-Heal Sprouts- natsukarekusa shōzu (乃東生)

December 27–31 Deer Shed Antlers- sawashika no tsuno otsuru (麋角解)

January 1–4 Wheat Sprouts Under Snow- yuki watarite mugi nobiru (雪下出麦)

Wishing you quiet reflection and joy in the final days of our calendar year.

Natalie