The Deer From Ueno Zoo
I met a deer at the swimming pool - the same deer from Ueno Zoo. He had an old, compassionate face, the kind that has learned to respond to ignorance with a smile. We got to talking while walking home together. The deer told me about his travels, that he had made his way up from the South and how the journey had been hard on him and his wife (had she died?). There was particular trouble with the way his bags were checked and handled and of course there was the ever-present fear of being killed.
Commiserating with the deer in my usual empty, chameleon way, I began, "Yes, you guys are killed for meat, for trophies...Jersey is so overpopulated with deer that you find them just standing on people's lawns with nothing to do."
My companion smiled at me generously.
Silenced, I suddenly visualized my next-door neighbor standing in his front yard holding a rubber hose. From time to time he would raise his free hand to wave at passing cars.
