“Deer Tongue” by Matthew Haughton

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Bee-Coursing BoxCrushed leaves
make smoke,
the senses
snap,
burning
on each
inhale.
Smoke pours
in thin
violet
streaks,
like deer
tongue
flicking
clover leaf.
Smoke, then
silence,
down
to an ash.

–Matthew Haughton,
Bee-coursing Box
Accents Publishing

More from Bee-Coursing Box and Matthew Haughton:

Matthew HaughtonMatthew Haughton was born in Colorado in 1977. At an early age, his family returned to eastern Kentucky, where his lineage stretches back over a century in the region. Matthew is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. Most recently, he was a finalist in the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning’s Next Great Writer Competition. His poetry has appeared in literary magazines such as Kentucky Monthly, Still: The Journal, and The Heartland Review. This is his first published collection of poems. He lives and works as an artist and educator in Lexington Kentucky.

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