THE IMAGE

The child brought blue clay from the creek

and the woman made two figures: a lady and a deer.

At that season deer came down from the mountain

and fed quietly in the redwood canyons.

The woman and the child regarded the figure of the lady,

the crude roundness, the grace, the coloring like shadow.

They were not sure where she came from,

except the child’s fetching and the woman’s hands

and the lead-blue clay of the creek

where the deer sometimes showed themselves at sundown.