Sheltering Pines
Crystal Pierce
A boy walks on a path flanked by two rows Of white pines sheltering him from a wind Out of the west dragging its big belly Across tree tops bending them, not him, To its wild wintry will into nighttime. Pines spread faint blue shadows on snowfall In the fading light when a white-tailed doe, Trailed by two yearlings, steps into the path Of the boy who stops breathless in the cold Watching deer that were checked in fear. The doe raised her tail like a white pennant Then vaulted for a neighbor’s woods; yearlings Matched her mute movements to find their rest While the boy ran to fetch the story home.
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