David Ritchie

Death in Texas

The cold unrest of my soul
is marked by a pale reminder;
a distant place
where old blood
seeps
from crusted wounds
coloring other realities
with a tint of tragedy.
When I turn full face towards it,
I see something of mine
from yesterday:
The cold of late November, and
the sin-guilt oppression
so fertile within a boy.
With steady hands I joined
the gunsight and the deer.
Squeezing the trigger,
she dropped
in the same instant.
I crossed to her body,
and was forever separated
from the child I was, when
the doe,
still alive
raised her head,
rested it
against my chest,
and looked at me as if she could
predict my coming torment.
It was a while before I breathed
again. And I,
less than I was before,
slit her throat.

David Ritchie writes: My poetry has appeared in many on-line and print publications including: Serpentine, Black Bough, Poetry Motel, Live Poets Society UK, Northwest Literary Forum, Parnassus Literary Journal, Piedmont Literary Review, and was the blue ribbon winner for poetry with the Southern Poets Association. I have been an active proponent of poetry through teaching and public performances for many years in the Seattle, Washington area, including radio and television. I am the Poetry Editor of the new electronic magazine, L'Intrigue.