Sally Nacker
Kindness in Winter

for Scarlet, age nine

Young Scarlet stands in deepening snow—
where she knows the doe
knows she has stood
before— at the edge of the wood.
The doe turns her ears toward the soft, recognizable sound
in the snow on the ground.

She listens from far in the wood—
and from a place of long-ago. Good
Scarlet feeds the gentle doe
red apples in the twinkling snow.

<< return to the Table of Contents for New Series #10: Winter 2020, Volume 5 Number 2