Each year, she tends to the flowers surrounding the pond —
Hasta, all manner of lilies, Sedum and Shasta Daisies.
The deer eat most except they let the daisies go
and do not abscond.
It’s maddening to see the flowers grow lovely and strong
but overnight petal, stamen and pistil are devoured and gone
leaving only the poor, lonely stem,
a peduncle, which in the wind does bend.
Yes, the deer eat most except they let the daisies go
but she’s a pushover at heart —
how can she stay mad at Bambi, the fawn
And his mother, the Great Princess of the Forest
— the lovely doe?
Still…the deer just drive her crazy,
and next year she may plant only the Shasta Daisy.