Bye-Bye Jimmy…..[nature Observations; Death; Personal]

Two days ago out our window in the morning
a unique event appeared to me without warning.
Among the trees, of our neighbor’s southern slope,
I spied a large deer which I felt had little hope
of making it to the next day’s dawning.

I saw it prostrate, its head weakly raised a bit.
One large ear moved but was about to quit.
One proud antler rose above its head,
but I thought ‘this buck is nearly dead.
It will cause no more springtime ‘fawning’.’

My wife was near me and I alerted her.
By the time she looked, the deer did not stir.
But she thought he was alive and that he looked her way.
She may have been correct, but who can really say?
She named him ‘Jimmy’. I don’t know why.

My wife urged me to write this farewell note,
the first such poem I ever wrote.
Two days have passed and Jimmy lies there cold,
no longer roaming hillsides, no longer bold.