She lept as light as laughter

by John MacBeath Watkins

In the forest, in the twilight
I met a young and graceful doe
who paused, and looked, did not take flight
until I doffed my hat and said hello.
She lept as light as laughter
through the brambles by the trail
and I stood there, gazing after
as my light began to fail.


(The public domain art is by Edwin Henry Landseer. Surprisingly hard to get a 19th century picture of a doe, because the artists of that era were obsessed with depicting deer with a nice rack, like Edwin Landseer's Monarch of the Glen.)