I found the death I was looking for
by the road - a roe deer struck by traffic
the hindquarters a meat on the bone maw
from canids - yet what was most graphic
were the eyes in which the black lustre
still reflected when I went up the hurst
but looked like dry paint in the flies’ fluster
when I came back down - the young doe nursed
to get the road wrong in early light -
then it took the place of some other death
because of its mistake and sudden fright
as even cyclists worked uphill for breath
having briefly mirrored me in dead eyes
from which was running the live surprise
Oxford
25 October 2018
I observed this doe carcass on Cumnor Hill on the morning of 24 October. This is not quite the Boars Hill overly celebrated in Oxford verse.