After Fastingreading a haiku by Robert Kratz

Hunger forced the doe closer to Man’s strange, straight-sided buildings so unlike Nature’s gently curved lines. She had been fasting by choice to remain near her whimpering fawn. But this dawn, he had grown still and cold. She had risen, finally, to shuffle as she could toward the smell of abundant corn. She had always feared Man, but she was too weak not to dare what was nearby for the taking.

The doe crept forward, trembling, then stopped, shuddering. A dog barked. The silence of the Meadow beyond beckoned, but it was so far.

Again, the dog barked, and was joined by the sharp yips of a smaller hound.

 The doe bound away, then staggered as she could toward the Meadow.