Buzzwinkle

BUZZWINKLE

That’s what the citizens of the small

Alaskan town named him when he stood

drunk and slightly knock-kneed in the pub’s

courtyard after eating too many fallen crabapples.

His inclined head drooping under the weight

of his antlers, what look like plates and bowls

tilt when he turns his long face sideways—

the flap swaying under his throat.

All eighteen hundred pounds of him, cinnamon-colored

and sedentary against the dusk light,

the hairy shoulder hump, and the huge cupped ears.

Room for wildness here,

co-existence in their ethos,

they felt a safe alliance in his slow lounging.

Then a sudden snort through his blunt snout,

as if to say, I’ll be taking my leave.

His enormous backside to them now,

and his hooves clicking the pavement

in his slow-paced exit toward home.

Yvonne Higgins Leach is the author of Another Autumn (WordTech Editions, 2014). Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. A native of Washington state, she earned a Master of Fine Arts from Eastern Washington University. She spent decades balancing a career in communications and public relations, raising a family, and pursuing her love of writing poetry. Now a full-time poet, she splits her time living on Vashon Island and Spokane, Washington. For more information, visit www.yvonnehigginsleach.com