Hopefully you are enjoying National Poetry Month. Today, another visit from our hawk friend.
You Know Who You Are
When you’re the Hawk-On-The-House there’s no hurry. Not atop a roof which still smells of the same new shingles your whole area received after storm-storms.
Those rains came with light, with crashes
louder than the slams growling wheels
make striking leafless trees. Wind, too, followed.
Glorious wind. Flipping leaves up
to show their soft undersides then
forcing itself beneath every open edge,
gutter to gully. There's no hurry.
They are all below you: stripe stripe pulse;
flash stripe beat. Faster now, because they know
you take a breath, fill yourself
with morning light. You fill your bones,
feel yourself lighten, focus: stripe stripe beat beat beat. Their world spins faster. For you the world is so light, so slow, you are not the chipmunk, your wings never need rush. Stripe, stripe. You do not scrabble in the dirt. You are the Hawk-No-Longer-On-The-House.
The red-tailed hawk is pretty common throughout North America–even if you aren’t a bird watcher, you’ve likely seen some. More info on red-tailed hawks here, from the Audabon Society. Fun fact: the red-tailed hawk scream is often dubbed into movies to stand in for the sound of an eagle. Because hawks sound like what people think eagles should sound like. You can listen to hawk sounds at the link above.