How tranquil and unruffled is Dreamland (Lake View Cemetery) in the evening at this time of year when the gates lock early and no other living humans are roaming about.

Yesterday, after running 7 miles, conceiving and recording the poem below, and watching the Sun set, it was time to leave Dreamland.  Since I was in the very heart of the cemetery, the normal road path to the perimeter would be about  a ¾ mile jaunt.  However, I decided to take a short cut (only ½ mile) through a patch of woods that hugs a stream in the valley of Dreamland.  I’ve often felt that, if indeed, such spirits as sprites, or water or wood nymphs, or faeries existed, it would be in this wood patch, along the stream, and at twilight/night that I would most expect to see them.

Well, as I walked along the wooded path, I suddenly heard some thrashing coming from the woods behind me.  Turning about and expecting to see a beautiful nymph?!  No, a red fox, perhaps, …  instead I encountered a fawn upon the path I had just traversed.

Grabbing my camera (after fully anticipating that the act itself of rummaging through my backpack to get it would scare the fawn away), I took a first quick snap and the flash detonated.  As you can see, the quality is ever so bad.

But the fawn didn’t flee.  So encouraged, I set the camera to available light (no flash) and started whispering to the deer—what else?—words of endearment, such as “Come here, baby.”  “Nice, baby.” at the same time as I attempted to approach it for a closer photo opportunity.  To my total surprise, this wild fawn let me caress it as would a touch-hungry kitty or puppy.

This stand of Dreamland woods at twilight/night is magical, I tell ya.  There’s a sublime hover of energy there.  And a timelessness devoid of fright.