Tent collects
Moisture from her breath
Wind rains it back she
Pulls the gift blanket
Over her head and
Waits for dusk
Will gather
Chamomile and
Yerba Buena in the
Places
Stripped of
Concrete or
Blacktop
Urban refugee doe
Tent in a rainstorm
Pulls her person mask into
Place
Heats water for tea

Kim Shuck was born and raised in San Francisco. The pepperwood trees probably taught her to poem. She is the seventh San Francisco Poet Laureate Emerita.  “Under the Freeway Doe” appears in Deer/A-wi by Kim Shuck and Denise Low out of Mammoth Press.