Written by: Marcia Aldrich

by Gilmore Tamny; for more information, visit http://linesdotscircles.tumblr.com

Edge

by Marcia Aldrich

In every man’s heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibration of beauty.

—Christopher Morley

Start with a dead deer at the side of Hamilton Road. A major artery between Okemos and Dobie roads, it is my route to work, to the supermarket, to the post office and bank, and the only means of access to Tacoma Hills, the subdivision in Meridian Township where I have lived for the last five years. The speed limit on Hamilton is 25 miles per hour, slowing to 15 at the roundabout a quarter mile to the west. Nevertheless, a driver has struck the deer, and now it lies in the grass in front of a condominium complex. It is a white-tailed deer, odocoileus virginianus, the smallest and most nervous member of the North American deer family.

How…