The Meadow

        As Bambi's mother

        Led her fawn

        Onto the meadow

        And was gone,

        So I was shown,

        And, thus, exposed

        To pastures where

        Foreboding bodes.

        Without the trees

        That hide the sun,

        The vast expanse

        Belied the gun.

        For when the shot

        Shattered the calm,

        The earth became 

        A maelstrom.

        The moment's shock,

        The past forgot,

         I ran to where

         I had been not.

         In foreign forests,

         Overgrown,

         I realized

         I was alone.

         And in the absence

         Of my mother,

         The canopy

         My only cover,

        

         The meadow, then,

         Proposed a test

         Of fortitude 

         And mindfulness.

         While I still graze

         Beyond the grove,

         The hand recalls

         The burning stove.