Concentrate upon her attributes:
the accipiter's short
roundish wings, streaked breast, talons fine
and slender as the x-ray of a baby's hand.
The eyes (yellow in this hatchling
later deepening to orange then
blood red) can spot
a sparrow at four hundred metres and impose
silence like an overwhelming noise
to which you must not listen.
Suddenly, if you're not careful, everything
goes celluloid and slow
and threatens to burn through and youmust focus quickly on the simple metal band around her leg
by which she's married to our need to know.
This poem is among those selected by Don McKay for his audiobook release with Rattling Books: Songs for the Songs of Birds.
Presently the digital download is 30% off for Poetry Month.
The Audiobook CD is available from Fred's Records in St. John's, Newfoundland.
