Deer Bones

Deer Bones
by Paul J. Willis

Funny how the inside of a femur
looks just like sponge cake.
But bones to dust and dust to soil
and soil to seed and seed to stalk
and stalk to grain and grain to meal,
I will eat that cake someday, that
sponge cake with the frosting of death.

—Ross Lake National Recreation Area

—from Deer at Twilight: Poems from the North Cascades