pale orange patch

startled to glimpse a pale orange patch

i looked up from my computer

through the venetian blinds

at the distinctive hind quarters

of an elk not twenty feet away

in my back yard

such a thick, muscular body on

dainty hooves and spindle legs

massive, long head and heavy spread

of antlers—and not alone

just then aware of the busyness

around him, i leaned to look

around the porch posts and to

the other window

six huge, powerful, wild creatures

grazing within feet of me

keeps me properly humble

my deer, my privilege

from the weeks after we moved

into our newly-built house

deer gazed into our living room

windows

they had evidently been using

our field as highway and wondered

about this contraption only partly

blocking their path and the strange

creatures inside

soon they were back, nibbling on

the sod grass we’d had laid

and now, decades later, they return

as does, singly or a gossipy group

at times with gangly offspring

grazing on weeded grass and vegetable

scraps i share

seldom a buck unless young, newly

separated from his mother

this morning dark-haunched

older ladies unabashed to taste green

blades mere feet from my window

my privilege