ELIJAH GUERRA

Will the Deer Come Before the Roses

i.

one moon by which all things are made to run

// armor the rose from the red heavens

on earth the briefest of suns

// it will make waves of the deer

will they carry the rose through the fire

// fractals of that heavenly tide

the moon threads the woods with deer

// fire losing its way to a dream

within the rose opens a field of fog

// whatever will bring the deer out of the fire

out of the fractal and into the fog

// come quick the red heavens are blooming

ii.

like fog deer ghosts drift through the forest

// searching for the rose with the astral womb

will the sun come before the opening

// edges of deer fog caught on the brambles

cadenza where deer like tides unfold

// forest dewy with moonlight legato

the velocity at which one entered the rose

// enfold the deer in mercurial bloom

will the brambles to let go of their edges

// into the moonlight rose a legato of deer

they will close the forest behind them

// ghosts for the field to coax from the brambles

iii.

you adapted so beautifully to the fractal

// angels on horseback coming down the hill

whatever will bring the deer out of the fire

// come before the roses with reverence

you too adapted quickly to all this red

// sun cloudy with blood

it will bring the deer into the shell

// eyes black with rose-like softness

horseback angels across the water

// closer to syntax where you adapted

will the shell be emptied of the sun

// will the deer come before the roses

iv.

down the center of the meadow a cosmic gash

// the middle field a sea of black

a deer on the brink of the meadow

// speeding to a stop where infinities inhale

will dark waves carry a single rose across

// into the chasm a red-winged blackbird

a sun forming in the middle field

// it will bring the deer into the shell

feeling what it's like to be a lake

// night sky mirror for the chasm

a single rose could bring us back to the meadow

// it was easy now for the deer to enter

Elijah Guerra (they/them) has poems forthcoming in Fourteen Hills and Permafrost. They teach at University of Cincinnati.