Dusk was beginning to move in
when I saw them bound across the road
and up the hill. Only their motion
let me know they were there, so well
did their colors blend with the trees
and the leaves not yet covered with green.
I had seen them last Monday, climbing
the same path up to old roadway that runs
east to west across the face of the hill.
They stopped to graze for a while.
Do deer, I wondered, eat violets?
One by one, they slowly passed,
alert and watching, ready to disappear
in seconds. And then they were gone.