When you live across from a cemetery,
you’re bound to see animals that aren’t there.
Last evening I saw a brown hare
that was actually an old tombstone.
And just now, I thought a lanky deer
was posing among the deceased,
but when I followed her thin legs
to where her body should be,
found only tombstones in relief.

It’s surprising their thick edges
could ban together like that and,
with strokes of shadow and glare,
appear like the sharp legs of a deer,
one who stands still, with nowhere to go
when she’s here, checking
every few minutes or so
for the feeling she’s stayed long enough.

Image credit:Walter Brunner

Best of the Net nominee, Rich Glinnen, has had his poetry featured on Rich Vos’s and Bonnie McFarlane’s podcast My Wife Hates Me, and is a mainstay at the Nuyorican Poets Café. His work can be read in various print and online journals, as well as on his Tumblr and Instagram pages. He currently has two cats, two kids, and one wife.