i knew they were there

 deer
 i didn’t know where
 but I knew they were there
 i had to take care
 i knew to take care
 i took care
 Dear
 
there always seems to be
 a dead tree for me
 marking my entrance into a dead man’s curve
a Stark barkless tall naked limbed dead tree
 standing majestically
 as if to wave me home
 
i’m no stranger to the dark
 i do not fear what I don’t see
 i do not care that I don’t fear
 i do not fear that I don’t care
 i know it’s there
 if it isn’t it surely will be
 i just don’t know where
 because I certainly can’t see
 
i don’t tip-toe where I must boldly go
 pensive not apprehensive
 Hyper-confidence in my ultra-awareness
 confident easy going swagger in my strut guides me
 god-given autopilot gliding through life god-given autopilot guiding me through my life
 greasing the wheels with that certainty with that knowledge that I don’t know
 
 nude limbs fake waving in an imaginary breeze 
whose imagination, mine 
or the tree’s?
 it beckons me in come home ian you’re safe
 i want to believe
 i trust the tree
 it’s dead after all it has nothing to lose
 nothing to gain in deceit
 i would be no good company
 
 this I knew
 i didn’t know
 i knew i didn’t know this thing
 i know i knew i didn’t know that i would be no good company in death
 that’s why this tree
 is forever there for me
 
i anthropomorphosize this tree
 it is the living embodiment of my caution
 it is all the hell that i care To pay
 it is all the damnation in tarnation
 it is the incarnation of my care
  
 
that deer shared my consciousness 
buck was two bucks fifty if it was a pound 
proud of his does his dosy doze in the lane we shared 
dosy doe’s seemed more aware 
or was it care 
what ever it was we shared i knew he was there and finding him knew where 
relief for a brief instant then instantly aware
that this newfound knowledge is history 
not to be believed in 
as it were my imagination 
knowing this is where does not preclude 
there are more, dear
more and unseen yet
 
unlike the tree. singular and ubiquitous 
in all of our 
permutations 
throughout all of our shared
existences
always there for me
always there
fake waving in the imaginary breeze we share
beckoning me into dead man’s curve
safely
    assuredly 
        majestically 
there