Susan Griffin

D T

Deer Skull

1

I keep placing my hands over
my face, the fingertips just
resting on the place where I feel
my eyebrows and the fine end
of a bone. My eyes are covered
with the blood of my hands, my
palms hold
my jaws. I do this at dinner.
My daughter asks
Are you all right?
and by a common miracle
when I smile
she knows I am.


2

I ask her what she will do
after we eat. Sleep she
tells me. But I will clean
the deer skull, wash it.