The Wounded Deer at Shady Cove

That they continue stripping tiny leaves
from the birches is not the mystery, but rather
who in this two-finch town along the Rogue
would only maim them, expertly, with arrows.
This is what an older generation might call
soft news. There is a creature, and there is
a creature’s suffering. They’re hard to distinguish.
It might have been bad aim, taken out of season.
You never hear the end of stories like these.

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Nicholas Friedman

Nicholas Friedman is the author of Petty Theft, winner of The New Criterion Poetry Prize. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, he is also the recipient of a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. He lives with his wife and son in Syracuse.

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Author: Nicholas Friedman

Nicholas Friedman is the author of Petty Theft, winner of The New Criterion Poetry Prize. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, he is also the recipient of a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. He lives with his wife and son in Syracuse. View all posts by Nicholas Friedman