A woman sold me sheep and said nothing ever goes wrong. Everything did. On hefting, the knowledge a flock carries in its bones, and what can't be bought.

A deer down in the snow with no mark on her, a state that owns every wild animal and won't come out, and what a signature can and cannot carry.

A doe down on an icy mountain road, and what it takes to keep knowing something without letting it mean anything. On denial as labor, not absence.