driving through a forest
heading back
from a new year’s eve party
the moon a lamp
angled in our faces
when suddenly we stopped
at the back
of a queue of traffic
stacked along the road
blue lights panicking
the trees
either side

‘an accident’ I said
getting out to look
just as a man
with his hood up
hunched in the cold
came walking back
from the scene

‘a deer’ he said
‘someone hit it
the police are finishing off’

I got back in the car
‘a deer’ I said

there was a crack
like a car backfiring
then another

‘shouldn’t be too much longer’
I said
yawning