In his death, the marksman
\nmissed a step.
\nHe was in a tree<\/p>\n
alone by the river
\nwhich crawls downhill
\nthrough town and clears out,<\/p>\n
when a rabbit dared
\nthe knoll in the middle
\nof the afternoon.<\/p>\n
As was his custom
\nhe let the creature
\neat before<\/p>\n
aiming. The sun
\nlit the rabbit
\nlike a small jewel.<\/p>\n
The marksman paused,
\nas was not his custom,
\nbriefly to marvel<\/p>\n
at the water and the light,
\nthe light on the water
\nand on the rabbit.<\/p>\n
When he shifted to raise
\nhis gun, the branch
\ngave, or he slipped<\/p>\n
(as the debate goes
\nin town) and tumbled
\nto the river. The rabbit<\/p>\n
ran off nonetheless
\n\u2014unaware of the sudden
\nabsence of danger,<\/p>\n
or of the light
\nbreeze which had just
\ncome around, or the fresh<\/p>\n
stands of clover
\nclutched by the water\u2014
\nterrified at the sound.<\/p>\n
There was a man called my father aside
\none day, a waterman they say by trade,<\/p>\n
who\u2019d thread you the rocks for a buck.
\nSome say he\u2019d pole you across in a skiff,<\/p>\n
others claimed he walked the surface
\nand dragged you behind like a sock.<\/p>\n
My father spoke with him, that much
\nis known, and stars made ideograms<\/p>\n
undisturbed through the night.
\nYes, they talked a long while. It\u2019s said<\/p>\n
there was even disagreement; knives
\nmay have been drawn. Some swear<\/p>\n
they only embraced and crops sprung up
\nfrom the spot. Some say there was a slow<\/p>\n
kind of spell forced my father to dance.
\nIf so, I can assure you he footed it well.<\/p>\n
NATHANIEL PERRY has had poems published in Crab Creek Review<\/em>, canwehaveourballback?<\/em>, and The Mid-America Poetry Review<\/em>; he has reviews forthcoming in Indiana Review<\/em> and Lyric<\/em>. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife and dog.<\/p>\n (c) Copyright 2006, Nathaniel Perry; author retains all rights.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From a Diary, Dorn County In his death, the marksman missed a step. He was in a tree alone by the river which crawls downhill through town and clears out, when a rabbit dared the knoll in the middle of the afternoon. As was his custom he let the creature eat before aiming. The sun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":71,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84\/revisions\/85"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}