Some Winter

Coming home from town tonight
I was chasing flame
Watching sky blooming into
Something hard to explain,
Looking at it as a farmer might,
Snow still deep and crunchy,
Judging pond recharge
In spring, thinking about the water table,
Thinking about my garden,
Glancing at the road now and then,
More then than now, hitting ruts of slush
And fading into the center on old
Byways so familiar that I knew when
To watch for deer, and with
A startle, I more or less woke up.
Twilight,
Winter,
Watch for deer,
And there they were, eyes orange in
My headlights as sky began to fade to
Pastels settling behind bare stands
Of woods, there they were, alert, in
Evening-blued fields, pawing through
Snow, ready to dart at any time.
You can’t do this, I said to myself,
Don’t be so inattentive, and so
I traveled the last five miles to home
Feeling cheated, feeling virtuous.