POEMS/ Predators
Predators
The death was quick and clean –
she saw the Cooper’s Hawk
swoop down to seize
one of the ground grazing
Mourning Doves
who moved together
a constant pair
foraging daily
beneath her feeder
saw the raptor
lift and rip its prey
feathers floating
down from a branch
of the tall oak
saw its mate alone
partner in nest building
incubating feeding fledging
of their brood gone
saw the survivor
move from tree
to tree calling
its sad lament
mourning for a mate
it would not find again
just as she wandered
through her empty
house grieving
for her mate
of over half a century
seized and devoured
by a predator
that grew for years,
inside him.
©Phyllis Beck Katz
The death was quick and clean –
she saw the Cooper’s Hawk
swoop down to seize
one of the ground grazing
Mourning Doves
who moved together
a constant pair
foraging daily
beneath her feeder
saw the raptor
lift and rip its prey
feathers floating
down from a branch
of the tall oak
saw its mate alone
partner in nest building
incubating feeding fledging
of their brood gone
saw the survivor
move from tree
to tree calling
its sad lament
mourning for a mate
it would not find again
just as she wandered
through her empty
house grieving
for her mate
of over half a century
seized and devoured
by a predator
that grew for years,
inside him.
©Phyllis Beck Katz
