a moose came out of the woods and stepped on my heart, yes

a moose came out of the woods and

stepped on my heart, yes

a moose, horns like driftwood oaks

came out of the forest and

stepped on my heart

a moose or maybe an elk hard to tell

given my position and the fact that

the moon was radiant, glowing, but

behind clouds and I was lying down

curled in fetal position and

holding my head in my hands

as if my head newly born needed

all the protection it could get especially

with large hoofed ruminant animals

wandering about in semidarkness and me

so vulnerable—what’s that L doing in vulnerable

other than being silent? but let’s return to the stepping 

where my heart gets compressed by tremendous hooves

and blood shoots through me but then, powerful 

muscle that it is, inflates and throws the massive deer 

up into the sky, over the tops of trees and into deep space 

beyond the concerns of humans and their spelling

and then my heart compresses on its own, we need

the constant circulation of blood even without fable

________________________

this inspired by David Naimon's interview on his brilliant podcast Between the Covers
with Caren Beilin wherein she speaks of journaling about a cow squashing her heart.