The Fallow Deer of Belle Isle, 1983

After Philip Levine

by Maria McLeod

The Fallow Deer of Belle Isle, 1983

      After Philip Levine

The fallow deer of Belle Isle
do not appear
in Phil Levine’s poem
about his nighttime swim
in the Detroit River
with the Polish girl.
But I am there, on a different plane
of time, which I’ve learned
is how the past becomes the present
in the passenger seat, peering out
at the ghosts caught in our headlights,
the white-coated descendants of a herd
that had been shipped from France,
my boyfriend explains, crossing
an ocean to come to graze
on the grasses of Belle Isle
in the shadow of the old sawmill. Time
rolling backward and forward, roiling
like waves, one atop the other, which
transports me to another body of water,
with another man, my dressing
next to him, silently
after a swim, like Phil and the
girl he’d only just met, wanting and afraid
of our wanting, time past
and time present, the lines
from Eliot coming to me now
as an echo, down the passage
we did not take, towards the door
we did not open. Fresh water
lapping, we stop to watch the white
deer. The buck raises his head, but
only briefly, before he continues
his grazing.

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Poet Maria McLeod’s (she/her) poetry and prose have been published by literary journals in the U.S., England, Germany, India, and Scotland. She’s won the Quarter after Eight Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Prize, the Indiana Review Poetry Prize, and has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes. She’s authored two poetry chapbooks, “Skin. Hair. Bones.,” and “Mother Want.” Originally from Michigan, she lives in Washington and works as a journalism professor for Western Washington University. Follow her on Instagram @mariapoempics.

Artist Rebecca Nestor (she/her) is a stay at home mom in Oregon. She has a passion for creating works that are relatable and engaging. Follow her on Instagram @rebeccaelainenestor.