A bull moose circles at the edge of my lawn and woods.
\nHis large head tilts oddly, as if he were looking or listening
\nfor answers as to why the wildness has greyed and grown smaller,
\nwhy he no longer hungers for green shoots or deep forest paths.
\nEmaciated, stumbling\u2014I should call a conservation officer
\nto come destroy this poor animal. Brain worms
\nhave infected his cerebrospinal functions. I still know
\nthis much, recognize the symptoms. Though this morning
\nI awoke confused, baffled as to where I was. A woman\u2019s face
\nsmiled at the edge of my bed, her head tilted as if
\nin love, offering me toast and tea. I did not know her.
\nI remember warm water, finding myself beneath the rain
\nof a showerhead, a possessive word pressing into my cerebellum
\nrelating to answers I do not wish to possess. There was a time
\nwhen I put boots down on the paths leading to wild ponds
\nand ledges hidden miles away, places of untamed spectacle.
\nI can no longer see them clearly. The bull moose angrily
\nstrikes his hooves at the soft ground, looking for the enemy.
\nIf they come to shoot him he will charge
\nas best he can, fearless and heart-pumping
\nto face off with whatever wishes to paralyze
\nor end his unsteady gait. His muscles
\nbuckle involuntarily, but he pushes back
\ninto his circling. I am tired, confused
\ntoo often, but there\u2019s a trace of me still
\nthat chooses old paths leading to sanctuaries
\nof night rest, soft depressions of leaves.
\nI will take an antique rifle, open and close the door,
\nadvance upon the bull moose, we will see
\nwhat final nourishment might offer itself
\nto the virile fragments that can remember who we are.
\n
\nScott Hutchinson’s work has appeared in The Georgia Review and The Southern Review. Poems are forthcoming in Appalachian Heritage, Floyd County Moonshine, ConchoRiver Review, Louisiana Literature, The Naugatuck River Review, Red Dirt Forum,Steam Ticket and Tar River Poetry. A new book of poetry, Moonshine Narratives, is available from Main Street Rag Publishing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A bull moose circles at the edge of my lawn and woods. His large head tilts oddly, as if he were looking or listening for answers as to why the wildness has greyed and grown smaller, why he no longer hungers for green shoots or deep forest paths. Emaciated, stumbling\u2014I should call a conservation officer [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[335],"class_list":["post-6768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-bull-moose-wikicommons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6768"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6773,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6768\/revisions\/6773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}