Bones

Incident Along I-95 near Bellevue Park

(A True Story)

All trees in brief leaf.

Shadow fresh. Lush spring grass.

Lingering eve light

Glistens in red sundown rage

Upon apparent rib cage.

Seen in disbelief

Along the highway. Sped past

Homeward bound each night:

Vertebrae, discarded spine.

Accident victim or crime?

Each day and a week.

Bones lie exposed and ignored.

White, unhid by weed.

Is it only I who pay

Heed to death by the highway?

With son and daughters,

We drive to the skeleton,

Approach with shudders.

The murdered corpse we fear

Is but carcass of a deer.