Fathersong
By Rick Crelia

Exit wound
Smaller than the entry -
The bull elk collapses, slamming
The world with his weight,
Noble firs around him scream.
I turn and leave him
There on the mountain
And follow the river quietly
From one eddy to the next.

Rick began life some 30-odd years ago in the Blue Ridge mountains of SW Virginia, moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2000 by way of a 12-year stint in Athens, GA. In a former life, he was a social psychologist, and now works as a computer systems engineer in Seattle. He shares a home with a flatcoat retriever named Lily, who, on a daily basis, helps him to remember what is truly important.