New Bambi

you've seen the horror before

a deer senselessly dead

by the side of a paved road

on which you must pay to drive

wonder where it goes

where it ends this highway

with a number and a name

that's been privatized

hunger and thirst force the living 

to do crazy things take foolish chances

cause animals in desperation

to wander busy streets

make the accursed susceptible to

ever more manipulation

this month black birds pick at

the delicacy of unborn life

inside a disintegrating doe

in a few months if a few months come

buzzards will wait for abandoned fawns

to appear frightened and unfed

from soft beds at forest's edge

looking for their mamas

before they give up and die

the latest llm is refashioning

an old classic about it

titled new bambi

after a thorough scan

assessment and assimilation

of a library of plagiarized books

producing the suspect conclusion

there's still a market for films

about the slaughter of mothers

entertainment to turn roadside kill

into a permanent feature of the culture

advance the government’s agenda

where cruelty is the only point

diminish our ability to distinguish

between what's real and what's spewed

by the fog machines of influencers

leaving us incapable

after paying the toll

on the way to work

of sorting out what matters