This piece was first published in Quarto’s 2020 Spring Print Edition.

I did not want not to be quiet
but last night you folded me in place

of our clothes which clung to the floor
in shreds shed petals dewy

by the time we awoke I opened
my mouth in place of my eyes

your body’s length gathered
in my arms in pleats cries of quails

fluttered down on us rustling
and it wasn’t till I placed

my mouth on your shoulder
that I caught the deer’s

eye as it moved
through grass gaze resting

for a moment on our sheets
unblinking

how far did it come
did it walk to bear witness