so there we were playing frisbee
on the post-match polo field
when my sister reminds us to look up.
and we immediately spot–
through a flurry of feathers,
thousands of feet up in the air
–two hawks join claws in midair
and go into this swirling freefall!
my jaw was dropped open
as i witnessed this avian acrobatic display…
they were spinning faster
than you could even imagine
it looked so out of place
in the broad daylight of reality
and they were just plummeting downward
i was like the cartoon about to be
crushed by the falling piano
but i was awestruck.
but just as it seemed they were
spiraling towards their own destruction
one hawk spread its wings and went into a glide
as the second hawk fell limp
hanging trapeese-style from the other’s claws
together they glided down
(my sister running just below them)
into a rolling crash into the underbrush
a surprised onlooker shouted
“i think that bird just caught a rabbit!”
my sister said “that is no rabbit!”
she had explained to me that
we were witnessing a courting ritual
as the hawk mating spectacle died down
all of the other birds in the area
were drawn into the sky
in an fluster of excitement,
thousands of them swarmed the sky
caught up in the energy of the moment
as if the hawks had electrified the atmosphere
with their wild lust lightning
and the other birds were powerless
against its magnetism.
