1.

At work one evening

a white shape beneath green foliage

caught my eye

across the street

at the edge of the golf course

I crossed over

to investigate

I pushed aside greenery

to find a pile of quicklime

with a deer skull sticking out of it

no doubt someone’s scheme

for subduing the stink of a carcass

Why not encase the dead deer

rather than remove it?

I stood with my hands behind my back

leaning in

wondering at this sculpture

white skull protruding

from white hardened material

and I recalled Michelangelo’s idea:

I did not sculpt a deer

rather I removed the stone that was not deer

 

2.

As I approached work in my car

a white shape against green foliage

caught my eye

I noticed the white cattle egret

standing on the grassy shoulder

across the street

wings behind its back

leaning in

investigating a roadside cross

that had been erected

in memory of a young woman

who’d been killed by a truck there

There was much to examine:

flowers and photos

and poems and remembrances

and trinkets

The egret remained there

focused

in position

as I drove past