The Good Half

When you said you only wanted half of me,
did you mean the top or the bottom half?
Maybe you meant the outside half and not the inside half
Not the half that dives into the ocean but continually emerges the same person,
A salt-covered osprey shaking off the sand,
Looking you in the eye and asking you where you've been
Not the half that learned to fight like my mother with words that shoot to kill
No, you wanted the kill
The deer
The fawn falling softly on the mossy ground
Not the hoofs thrashing though the duff, stopping abruptly with her head raised sniffing the air
You wanted the half that flies, not the half that escapes