Raptors

I am always enchanted by Ospreys and here's a little poem I wrote a few years back after observing ospreys.../b In foreign land of towering pines And hammocks, mangrove-torn A dark-filled night reluctantly Bequeaths a pale dawn Upon one battered cypress perched, Amidst the morning haze, Bright eyes stare out from part-cocked head With piscicultural gaze. Intently focussed on the brook, That glides beneath the tree Alive to every shadow’s sound Yet never truly free. For choicelessly these eyes are drawn, As waters break below And like a flash a head snaps back And rippled muscles flow. Within the slightest moment’s breath, Two mighty wings released, Two claws full-stretched, two legs reach out The sinews, strained, unleashed. The beaten air the only sound, As time itself stands still And, tracer-like, on charted course The osprey meets its kill. With consummate and practiced ease The painless end begins The single deadly blow is dealt As sharpened claws sink in. Then up away into the dawn And time resumes its course Two final beats – then disappeared Is this magnetic force. The cypress perch and well-filled brook As silent witness stay And as they settle – calm again The sun declares the day. Steve Hagget