print previewback NANCY REDDY
Landscape with Deer, Mites, and Aircraft
Because the Lord loved beauty
more even than obedience he made
the mite. Seen under microscope
the mite becomes a pageant queen,
its shell a slick and dazzling array
of pattern and color. Seen this close
everything becomes a body,
the convex lens revealing order
even in the bedbugs, even in despised
yellow jackets and forgotten mayflies.
From a plane once at descent
I saw a herd of deer in snow
gnawing bark. I was hungry like that,
shucking my own skin, like elks
in velvet, rubbing the bloodied skin
from their own horns. 
The Braided Stream
Landscape With Deer, Mites, and Aircraft
Ordinary Pleasures