Poem: Cooper’s Hawk (with Apologies to Wordsworth)

Regal, as if touched by royalty, you light upon the wire,

Surveying the buffet of opportunity below, where we

Who cannot soar, cannot glide, forlornly aspire

To shed our earthly shackles and be free.

You cannot be called a kind and caring raptor,

A patient pedant, with heart o’erflowing with generosity.

Your icy mission is starkly clear: to be a heartless captor

That kills and disembowels without pause for ruminant philosophy.

Yet we who walk upon the land, prisoners of gravity

Observe your single-mindedness with grudging admiration.

We see not a murderer swimming in a sea of depravity

But a champion inspiring our solemn approbation.