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THE HEIFER
Once, on a morning yellow and cold,
I walked by a brook through an overgrown wood
where heifers grazed. Wary they followed.
I walked with care around their curiosity.
I stopped by the brook on a flat gray stone.
The heifers startled, blundered away.
Had I been careless of their tenderness?
The beech trees trembled their amber leaves.
The heifers startled, blundered away;
I wondered if I’d done some harm.
Beeches stood with amber leaves trembling,
pine branches, hemlocks flickered in the sun.
I’d not meant them harm. I was turning to go
when one Jersey fawn returned alone
through pines and hemlocks flickering the sun–
her cloved feet pattered softly on the stone.