Still Life by: Kaela Burke

Still Life

By: Kaela Burke

All was peaceful in the meadow. The grass had grown tall since the last of the snow had melted in the spring, and the bright summer sun had bleached its long stalks, giving the field a golden gleam. A passerine robin kept watch over all the meadow’s inhabitants, listening in on the other songbird’s conversations. Their chatter trickled through the canopy in soft chiming waves, pleasant white noise that none in the meadow minded. A herd of deer grazed on the grass, their tawny coats rippling as they meandered through the field. The grass whispered and parted around them, their soft steps fading into the bird’s background music. An indulgent doe turned a blind eye to the two fawns frolicking around with one another on knobby knees, thumping and crunching their way through the stalks, the spattering of white on their coats blurring the lines between them and the grass. There was one buck among them, his antlers crowning his head in elegant arcs. He stood on the outskirts of the meadow, just inside the tree line, his ears twitching, listening for any danger. The rabbits and voles scurried underfoot, the benevolent giants above them not seeming to notice nor care. The dappled sunlight that cascaded through the canopy covered the meadow in tortoiseshell patches that slowly dimmed as the sun disappeared behind the horizon, the distant mountains a silhouette against the now star-speckled sky. The songbirds quieted their chirping, the deer went on their way, and the rabbits and voles returned back to their warrens. The grass remained tall and golden from the bright summer sun, and all was peaceful in the meadow.