Should I just leave you in this frozen night
since you’re no help? Go there and plop that heart
in the gut bucket. We’ve packed the fridge tight
with cabin food already, so for the parts
we’ll keep, we’ll pack some snow on them. Your deer
should make decent venison jerky. Look,
it’s just dead meat. There is nothing to fear
about a dressed deer. Now, down past the brook,
Dad leaves the organs deep in the thickets
and then he wipes the blood off his hands.
Here’s his rag for that. Take that gut bucket
then go dump it in the snow like a man.
But that heart, I always chuck it far back
where it can wait for spring all blue and black.
Having grown up in Chester County and worked in Philadelphia, Andrew Weller has a deep connection with Eastern Pennsylvania. He just graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a Masters and Bachelor’s in English. He continues to write in his spare time while starting his career as a technical writer.