D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
September 2009
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]Mary A. McNeill's Grand Prize-winning entry is the first poem to take the top prize in the six years of our contest, which speaks powerfully to the quality of her work. Although poetry can seem to be the easiest form of creative writing — after all, it's typically the shortest — its very brevity means every word must count. A first-time winner in our contest, McNeill accomplishes just that in her poem about an all-too-frequent occurrence in our corner of the Southwest. |
The Doe I Hit on Hwy. 35
By Mary A. McNeill
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collapsed shoulder on shoulder
heaves smoky puffs on the exhale
fine hairs in her nostrils fluttering
sere fall grasses at her muzzle.
Behind my car
dented and stained with clots
of blood and hair
a junky pickup clatters to a stop.
"Do you have a gun?" I ask
"Please, please shoot her."
"Sorry, lady." He splats
tobacco juice near his bootheel
backs away hands in the air
"They'd say I was poaching."
I would not blame him
for slaying
me
but he drives away.
I kneel in roadside gravel
grateful for gritty pain
inches from her hooves
smaller than my hand
and more delicate
slashing
slashing.
Her sloe eye
doe eye
bittersweet-chocolate dark eye
slowly loses its shine
drying in the chill
air creeping uphill
from the shallow Mimbres
River behind me.
Bile scalds my throat and mouth
her sacrifice
wrong
her path up from water
here ages before mine.
We choke together
she and I
partners
in this gory wake
killing the last
two hours of her life.
Mary A. McNeill is a writer / editor / retired community college writing instructor happily transplanted in Mimbres from Oregon. She has published poems and short stories in a number of literary magazines. She is also the poducer/director of "Confronting the Troll — Women Honor the Creative Impulse," a video documentary of artists and writers who have overcome obstacles to produce their works, available from mary@essenciamedia.com.