A snapshot in time is all it was
Circled in a 360 freeze frame shot
Brown fur
Black enamel and leather
Chrome
Ninety mile an hour freeze frame
Of blurred motion in the passing lane
An oncoming semi ahead
The last car in a five car long pass on the right
Suspended in mid air
Hangs Odocoileus Virginianus
A male white tailed deer
Illuminated by the bright headlight
Of a Harley Davidson Sportster
Black enameled tank and fenders
With an orange stripe down the middle
Stove pipe silver painted straight pipes
Barking sound waves and short flames in the darkness
The rider's eyes are wide
As wide open as his throttle
Fear just starting to cross his features in this moment
Fingers starting to hover over the brake lever
In a mad and futile half attempt to avert disaster
Close enough to see the individual hairs on the deer's pelt
The rider's heart has skipped a beat
Independently of this frozen moment
The driver to the right also sees this imminent disaster
And thinks about hitting the brakes
The white tailed deer
Who only seconds before
Had been running full tilt across a golf course
No headlights in his field of view
Hanging in the middle of his desperate leap
To try to clear all these suddenly appeared obstacles
It's too late for all of them
The clock restarts
Our frozen shot moves on
The rider ducks down to avoid any part of the animal
Momentarily flutters the throttle in delayed reaction
But remembers his precarious situation
Completes his pass
And prays a thin lipped prayer
The driver only sees a brown blur in front of him
And a sound
As if a pebble had stuck the bodywork of his car
The deer just grazes the fender of the vehicle with his right rear hoof
Leaving a shallow dent behind
The big buck keeps on running towards Lake Huron
Grimly determined to have his early morning drink
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