The Deer

Once, a brave deer was born beneath the trees Where morning kissed the leaves It learned the songs of gentle streams And the secrets carried by the breeze But the forest taught a different song A song of footsteps near A song where every distant sound Could become a reason for fear Oh the deer began to run each day Before the danger came It ran from shadows in the woods It ran from whispered names The branches moved above its head The grass beneath would shake And every leaf that touched the ground Was another life at stake Oh the brave deer ran through the seasons Through summer rain and winter snow It forgot the taste of fighting It forgot where it would go The hunter waited in the distance But the deer was far away For fear had built a prison With no walls it had to stay Oh one day the deer found a field of courage Where no footsteps followed near Where flowers grew beneath the sun And nothing waited there It saw the open land ahead A place where it could breathe A place where no one hunted it A place where it was free But the deer still ran away It ran before it knew For the greatest hunter it had found Was the fear it always knew Oh tell me little deer When did the shadow become the prey When did the thing you ran from Become the thing that made you stay For the hunter may have taken one day But fear had taken all the rest And the deer kept running... Even when there was nowhere left to flee.