Jim Heter

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The Unicorn

When meadow-mists begin to rise
And sleep is still in childrens eyes
A stirring in the brush is heard
As of a foraging small bird
Or mouse.  But then a glimpse of white
Betrays a seldom witnessed sight:
A pale blue gaze, a spiraled horn;
Behold: it is the Unicorn,
That rarest and most mystic beast
of all that wandered from the East.
But then before we turn around
He vanishes without a sound
And all that we have left for proof's
The print of one small cloven hoof.
 
I wrote that one at the request of Dudley Carson back around 1980.  He wanted a poem to go with a drawing of a unicorn that he was working on.  He liked it, but said it was too long for the card, so I did this one and he used it:
As quick as thought his slender frame
From snowy flank to cornsilk mane
Has softly stepped through silent haze
To pierce me with an azure gaze.
 
The high proud head, the spiralled horn
That glistens with the dew of morn,
A mythic portent quickly gone;
One cloven hoofprint lingers on.