"The Mechanics of Molting" in the minnesota Review

My poem "The Mechanics of Molting" appears in the current issue (Issue 91) of the minnesota review, published by Virginia Tech. The poem features scenes from an orchestra trip I took in high school to rural Western Nebraska for some kind of competition. We were housed with host families and I stayed with a family who lived way outside of town. When we finally arrived on their farm, it was night and the headlights circled out to illuminate a dead deer swinging from a tree. They'd shot it earlier in the day and were preparing to butcher it. Being a city person, I'd never seen such a thing up close. The shock of it made the image stick in my mind for many years.