Red Tail Down

I look up to see the crash landing
from the dining room window
descending too fast without grace
a female red-tail hawk meets the ground hard
sharp eyes, claws, beak—
one shoulder bone jutting out
under the skin at an unnatural angle

A wild animal, looking bewildered,
here among the even rows
the cultivars
the yard’s fat domestics
who supply us with eggs
I can tell she’s dismayed, and
trying not to show it 

I think, where did the wild in me go?
the unapologetic ice blue gaze
that missed nothing
the one who could soar in vast circles
above the restless activity, the mundane,
the leaden routines—
the buoyant one who could catch an updraft
and simply float—

When did my broken wing
bind me to earth?

First published in Birdland Journal 2019