Encounter'

( version of 2011)

Above the early morning fog
I hear a single songbird peep,
if not for me she'd be unheard,

the mountain cove is still asleep,


Then, through a rhododendron bush
a tawny forest beauty glides,
seeming not to move one leaf

to taste the dewy grass she spies


She turns, and bends her slender neck,
then stops. -I've made a tiny sound-
her eyes and twitching ears she lifts,

our gazes meet and my heart pounds,


her glance is cooler than a mist,
and, though the stranger stands so near,
she stands and lets me stare and stare,

she seems to be devoid of fear,


she's like a runway manequin
who waits to let me have my fill,
then turns, walks through a leafy screen,

and as before, the woods are still.
-jorge999