Victoria Anderson | “The Hawk Inside the Hawk”
After his absence winter through early spring
our Cooper’s Hawk reappears to perch
on the top branches of the Alder.
When a squirrel, unburdened by intelligence
but gifted with tenacity, climbs the Alder’s trunk,
the hawk displays.
He is short-winged, feathered white
with fine streaks of brown, sporting orange underparts
that suggest another bird drawn within the larger one.
For days he has scanned for prey,
disguised not as much by foliage as by his stillness.
Now, with two stiff wing beats he tears
through the cherry tree shivering with birds
and emerges with a rusty-capped tree sparrow.
We know his prey is held tight
by short talons and then
ripped open with the two large ones.
As with all dilemmas reserved for humans
we are conflicted. We have fattened
this flock all winter because we need their songs.
We have listened as the they practice
the same sweet warble over and over again.
But a raptor is hard to turn away from.
His is a rougher song, the “kak kak kak”
that comes in three hard syllables.
Fine accompaniment to the season’s
short and darkening days.
Originally published in Cape Rock Review #45