The Deer Rescuer
Donna Yusi Mahoney Out in the garden in the early morning the cry of an animal in need of help caught my ear. As I rushed to the neighbors yard a young deer was trapped and was frantically searching for a way out. Banging his head against the wrought iron fence he managed to get the front half of his body through but found himself hanging for dear life. I rushed over and held his body up putting my head on his back and talking to him so very gently as my neighbor rushed to get the hack saw to prey open the bars that imprisoned him. The saw did its job and out jumped my new friend a little scared but free. Two days later a rash appeared on my neck. The poison oak was worth those few moments with one of God's creatures in my arms.
Cynthia Helen Beecher
I walk up Monterey beach in morning coolness, hurrying to keep warm and build endurance for the day’s stresses.. Returning in late afternoon I slow to a marching-in-place pace, foam and light filling each footstep behind. I keep an eye out for odd rocks to take to my office windowsill lined with others gone mundane and dull. A gull’s sideways pull on a dead fish becomes an acrobatic tumble. I bend laughing. I see an accidental arrangement--twigs, pebbles, a stone—a perfect skull & crossbones. My blood freezes. I look ahead. A sudden ground fog obscures the way home.
