Entity
out of the abyss.
Graceful paws
tiptoe over tumbled boulders
beneath the pale winds of dawn.
Tawny-coated stalker
sniffs the breeze.
Relaxed, she strolls between oaks,
around clumps of chaparral.
Lithe body snakes through spiky grasses.
Amber eyes searching landscape
spy her prey.
Slowly, thick tail swishes
left.... right.
She merges with shrubs
behind screens of leaves:
a mule deer moving to the stream.
In ghostly silence, she watches.
Her supple body flows forward
on melted bones and muscles.
She hides behind drooping willows,
staring at her prey grazing
on the stream's far side.
He lifts his head, lowers it.
Tawny form glides over slick rocks.
Closer she slinks,
brownish-yellow scrub.
Exploding
she grasps his rump with iron claws
and pulls him down,
springing away from falling body,
gouging antlers, flailing hoofs.
The deer cries out in anguished dialect,
as her ghostly breath bursts his heart.
Trees shake bleeding birds from branches.
Author Bio
For some twenty years Ms. Newton taught high school English, first year French and creative writing. She spends her time now writing poems and fantasy stories. She is reworking MOONS OF DESTINY (a young adult novel) and looking for markets. Her serialized novels have appeared in print publications; for example, "Outcast of the North" in Lost Worlds. She belongs to the California Writer's Club as well as RWA.
Ms. Newton and her husband and live in the Sacramento Valley. Their two children are grown. Besides writing and grandchildren, her passion is travel. She spent the Christmas holidays in Palm Springs and plans to travel to Spain next May.
She has boxes of half-finished books in the closet and says, "I am well aware they have to be finished before they can be published; and I am working every day to make this happen."
- Back to Main page.
- Back to Contents.
- Read The Battle - a poem.
Silverhair