Carrying a dog that is almost dead
was like carrying a dog that was already dead.
I was driving home from work late night
when I hit a deer on the road to my house.
I saw him stutter-step toward the culvert
before he fell bloody and dead in the ditch.
I had to drive to school every morning
with that dead deer in the ditch knowing
that it was me who had killed him with
my pickup truck that I didn’t even want.
It was raining as I carried my dog
out of the rain and placed her to die
under the shelter and cried something
so awful, other people said they were sorry.
Hayden Church is a writer from Florida.
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