Will I find you in the midst of the meadow tonight?
Will I surprise you as you browse through the countryside,
walking in a regal manner?
Will you look at me curiously and in wonder?
It is best for you that you do not.
Turn your head from me
and hide your bright and luminous green eyes.
Flee on fleet feet!
For if you succumb to me
No other Anishinabe will have you.
_____________________________________
Ă·nĭ·shĭ·nă´bā: One of The People
Wă·wăsh·kĕ·shĭ´: Deer, Singular
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Love the questioning in the first stanza.
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Thank you Marey!
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Great opener, Russ. Overall, just lovely – as always. What do you think of
“…you browse through the countryside
in regal manner?”
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Hi H.W.,
Thank you for your kind response!
Every year, once the leaves are gone, the Anishinabeg in Red Lake hunt deer at night; hoping to catch them out in the open in their spotlights, or to see them back in the woods through the trees. I think of the line “walking stately” (or regally) to describe how they act in another poem as well, but I don’t want to use it too often. (Is twice too often?) For in deed, that is what they do, while they literally browse for food through the countryside.
But this kind of hunting has not been easy because of the limitations of the weapons at night and the fact that once one shoots at a deer and misses, they learn fast and don’t repeat the experience. So the next time they “see the light” resulting in the reflection from their “bright and luminous green eyes”, they have learned not to look at it and to run away.
This poem was my attempt to anthropomorphize/ and romanticize the above by using the words in the poem to allude to the act of courting, thus hopefully creating multiple meanings and a scenario that is more acceptable to another segment of my audience… I hope that wasn’t too much explanation and that I didn’t ruin the poem for you. 🙂
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Hm, after reading all of that I suppose I could have just said that every line is a play on words– having both a literal hunting sense and a figurative courting sense. 🙂
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