im finally done work, but not until taylor's off too. so we walk to the back together bitching about head management and opportunities and the like. i grab my bike and she calls a cab and we part ways. "i'll talk to you on msn later!" "yeah, so be there!" roll eyes, ride my bike away into the cold night. ive got my fuzzy hunting hat with the earflaps and like three sweaters on. and gloves. i can see my breath but i'm not too cold. i don't have to stop for anyone since it's 11pm at night on a sunday. i ride through the crunchy snow and ice onto the trail that follows the creek. it's faster and quieter.

then i see the beast
i know why we call it a deer
so natural and quiet
but how can this creature exist in a word?
and when it looks at me i feel wrong but so lucky
it lets me get so close
and doesn't run away but just walks
it needs the grass and i'm not dangerous
somehow it knows.
i take pictures on my cellphone but they might as well be UFO sightings
it could be a dog, but i'll know it's not.

and suddenly
the world is so much bigger.
i emerge from the path by the river onto a six-lane road, brightly lit-
but empty and cold
and all i hear is the air in my tires
and some clinking that tells me my bicycle's old.
the leaves that so recently sheltered the landscape
from largeness have fallen and i see the fields
(and i just saw the deer)
and suddenly i could be in peterborough or something
and brampton is placed
the whole GTA is placed
in Canada, on the land
the only boundaries are bus lines.

so i am so quiet
and my ears are so open
when a strange-looking space age car drowns me out
and so the world is unhuman

and i am alone

no one else dares face the cold

or the mystical beasts
that feast by the river.