The Hunt

Let's go.

Fly away with me,

Into sky blue and over the sea.

United

We will slip the snare of this Earth’s tether

And, with flapping wing and spreading feather,

Rise

Into the thin air of Heavenward sky

Alone...

The two of us...

Above noise and gravity weighted fuss.

Soaring over ocean vast

Where glittering,

Bright upon wave peak,

Cast...

Sunlight

Illuminates shoals racing,

Submerged...

Into the cross-hairs of our flight

Where now life and danger

Converge.

In steep descent,

Folded wing follows lethal beak,

Soft, cold, flesh and bone to seek.

We dive...

Gossamer rays through water guide

Towards thrashing,

Splashing,

Lavish banquet...

No place to hide.

Fighting ocean’s sucking maw,

We struggle upward

With dragging, weighted claw,

And, surface tension break,

Through iridescent

Bursting sea spray.

While limp and quiet

Dangling prey

Casts crimson droplets in our wake.

Tired, rhythmic beats across the Sun

The hunt is over,

The job is done.

Hungry nestlings search empty skies

Which fill...

And echo…

With triumphant parental cries.

We return.