Deer Ears

It always made me laugh

to see the deer ears

on this vintage Raphael Kirchner Christmas postcard,

one of the favorites in my collection.

It's so charming.

The mood, the night, the candles

but, most of all,

the very curious, pert, stylized deer.

Weird noses!  Weird stances!  Weird ears!

Their ears look like antennae,
nearly the same size as their head and neck,

especially those of that most obscure creature

who's nearly hidden behind playfellows and handwriting:

But I assumed they had more basis in artistic vision than in reality.

Because, in our experience, deer ears have looked more like this:

Then, earlier this summer, driving out of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,

we stopped on a bridge at dusk to snap a photo of deer at a distance.

When I uploaded the photos later that evening,
there was instant recognition:

Kirchner deer!

Precisely!

Kirchner was right!

Kirchner deer ears!

"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now this postcard is among the ones
that I hope to reproduce with acrylics.

It means even more to me than before.
It's become personal.

But just now I'm practicing drawing,
learning to get the lines to speak the right message
before the color begins.

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