Unexpected Guest

We live relatively close to a sprawling city park complete with a lake and walking paths through a heavily treed area. Last week I watched as a stately hawk landed on a high, leafless branch.

I reached for my camera but he would have none of it, and flew away. Somehow I suspect he was the same bird come to visit me earlier this summer.



Unexpected Guest


Perched on my balcony
ten stories high,
a red-tailed hawk, unperturbed,
undisturbed, surveyed the city scene.

Mid-step I froze like Lot's wife,
mesmerized.

Snowy breast streaked with chocolate,
head swiveling, searching, noting me,
winged wildness content to sit for a spell.

But not I, I itched for something more,
a photo for show. A fool's dream.

My least motion left me bereft.
Yellow-light talons in flight, warning
"Stay away!"

Across the sky
he circles on distant thermals,
a drifter on a solitary course.

The two of us never meant to be.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor