Antlered Elders

Its bones now branched beyond
Externally, out from its skull,
blanketed in a film of velvet
He thought how luxurious it would be
to lay upon them at their widest point
in that parabolic plane of ivory
And there he'd sleep, curled,
embryonic as intended, secure
To wake each new morning
from the steady rise and fall of it
upon sights before unseen
Sacred haunts, ancient, known only
to the antlered elders of the glade