Hawk in Winter
For Ted Hughes
Hawk sits atop the television aerial
Perched, eyes fixed,
Scanning the alley below for palatable vermin:
A mouse scurrying from a gutter,
A rat picking through a dumpster,
A squirrel walking the telephone wire.
In the full moon of December
Hawk sees only garbage strewn between
Cracked brick facades...
Bottles cast down and broken.
Hawk in winter
Doesn't feel the cold,
Only the hunger,
The need to sustain,
To feed,
To be.
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