family of three

fawn nearly sure on spindly legs

gangles away from slender stag

to stand in the intersection

traffic slows, stops, drivers and passengers smile and wait

as doe peeps over the wooden

fence she has leaped to get to a garden

fawn struggles up on the lawn

stage follows, peers at doe, finds

tall grass beneath a coastal pine

until doe leaps again the fence

nuzzles her fawn, springs over

the north hedge, which the fawn

traverses between low trunks

and stag bulls through

hunter’s moon

hunter’s moon

hunter’s moon whitewashed

the field in the night

highlighting evergreen boughs

as though laden with snow

leaving little place for a deer

to hide

yet this morning an antlered  buck

pranced through my yard

alive and well

to my relief

blessed at my window

welcoming wild birds

with seed and tiny scraps of vegetables

in a wrought iron bowl up and away

from neighborhood cats and dogs

they come almost continuously

scrub and Steller’s jays, California quail

chickadees, wrens, robins, flickers

so many colors, shapes and personalities

a snowy owl preening on my fence

even eagles, osprey and turkey vultures

circling high above, probably drawn by my many voles as are cougar and

bobcats awesome in their sleek power

who reveal themselves seldom

so deer and even elk are comfortable

grazing my back yard