Out of dusky silence and staggering
Time, from a swollen afternoon
Of elevated leg and painkillers,

Comes the car and driver. If thoughts
Briefly divert, their range is narrow:
Bucks in rut routinely damage vehicles

Along this stretch. The shoulders
Are carefully scanned. Her father
Wrecked last week and may not recover.

The driver, doubly chastened, still doesn't see
A black angus leveraging for broke,
Head bowed to barbed wire, munching

With backside and all fours planted
In the road. It's over almost before
It begins: red car bounces into oncoming lane,

Radiator leaks fluorescent green,
Black angus veers off its hooves, releasing
Anguished groans. Its orange-tagged ear

Writhes and slumps. The driver stumbles
From her car into the shadowed weeds,
Alone. Wind chills her to the bone.