Elegy to a buck

Here are things I know to be true:

I was thinking about getting oreos at the gas station in town

The road was entirely unlit by streetlights or other cars

My car hit the buck

I screamed

My car was not that much bigger than the buck

The buck was dead on the side of the road

Here are things I think are true:

The buck felt pain

I was lucky not to be injured

I was seriously shaken by the accident

I could not have avoided the buck

The buck was beautiful in an instant

Here are things I know to be hyperbole:

The buck felt air against his face

The buck’s legs lifted him into the air effortlessly

The buck’s heart beat louder and faster like a drum in a crescendo--

The drum beat stopped

The windshield shattered like ice and the car’s engine died suddenly and hopelessly

The car rolled to the side of the road

My heart beat to the same rhythm the buck set with its own heart before it died

My car mourned by rolling to a stop

The dead buck remembered the tragedy from the side of the road