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I yelled at God that I wanted to die

Madison Nanney

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and then I passed a dead deer
on the side of the road. I saw
no horns, no spiky bits. She.
Her belly as bloated as mine.
No bounce in the muscle. Her
mouth frozen open on a breath
she won’t take again. A creature
unknowing of the danger
on a dark highway. Her body so
natured that bright blue lights
piercing the black of her eyes
did nothing to slow her need
of prancing. Moving. One place
to another. Grassy field to asphalt
death. A creature from God, elegant
and maternal and instinctive, now
broken and limp. God wept with me
for the life of that deer. A creature
who didn’t ask for death. I yelled
at God that I wanted to die, then I
passed Her on the side of the road.
My cries, like hers, are silent, for now.

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Madison Nanney obtained her MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women (The W). She spends her on-days working at a local craft store in North Mississippi and her off-days writing poetry at her kitchen table. She has previously been published in Arkana, BarBar, Scapegoat, and elsewhere.

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