Pennsylvania Deer Hunt — Jake Sheff
Now the mist produces whispers of dusk.
Cicadas in acacias hum like lawnmowers.
A pair of sparrows coupling has more than
two minds. This planet, with a low IQ,
is thinking in haiku. Beneath Arcturus:
hunters; courtship; winter, beyond
the mountains, waiting to dance with
the county’s statuary. A man named Mac
McLeod is crunching leaves beneath his
boots to bum a silhouette. The trees are
masts; this great ship sails toward dawn.
The wild petunias’ tragic stems are
rufous-winged. A peculiar beehive’s
standalone behavior distracts the hunter,
adjusts the poetry for a buck to safely
pass. Spica dwells on public matters like
an Amish quilt. The tracks break off, amiss
like shards of pottery, in search of hearts.
***
Jake Sheff is a major and pediatrician in the US Air Force, married with a daughter and three pets. Currently home is the Mojave Desert. Poems of Jake’s are in Marathon Literary Review, Jet Fuel Review, The Cossack Review and elsewhere. His chapbook is Looting Versailles (Alabaster Leaves Publishing). He considers life an impossible sit-up, but plausible.