Cooper’s Hawk

By John I. Blair

When I first saw you
Sitting there alone
As though surprised
At sudden emptiness
Where dozens had been feeding,
You had your back turned,
Leaving me at loss
Just what you were.

Then a profile,
A hooked beak revealed,
And doubt fled
With the sparrows.

It seemed appropriate
You were perched
Upon the power line --
Not just that it passes higher
Than the phone or cable
And is the easiest
For taloned feet to grip.

But that power draws power;
Lightning hits the high ground;
And you radiated power
Without a wing,
A pinion moving.

You did not see me
Peering from the window
Nor would have cared;
And when I glanced away,
Then looked again,
You’d gone.

But there remained
A memory
Of death constrained,
Purpose modified
By present possibility.

And if I’d been a sparrow,
Numb beneath an oak leaf,
I think I might have sensed
Within my hollow bones
Your passage through my world
Not so much a bane
As something needful
Come too soon.

©2011 John I. Blair