Twenty feet above the ground.
The wind blows, I sway, back and forth.
My foggy breath rises to the limbs overhead.

A red squirrel scatters up my tree.
A branch bobs, a sparrow, next to me.
Across the field … a whitetailed deer.

My heart bursts from my chest.
Bow in hand, fifty pound draw.
The green pin trembles over the vitals.

Trigger, my finger squeezes, harder, harder.
THWAK! My heart stops.
The antlered deer… motionless.

Remorse intensely shakes my soul.
Silence screams in my ears.
A trickle of peace washes the blood from my hands.