A Dream of Flight
I watch the cat and bird in ritual play Bird preening in the cat's eye Cat a study in nonchalance Until the pounce when the cat captures in its paws the dream of flight The cat's throat quivers in perfect rhythm with the trembling bird's heart It sinks claws and teeth into the bird's back eats the bird bones feathers and beak Still the cat does not fly And now poor bird earthbound trapped in the cat's earthbound belly All that remains is the dream of flight The dream-- I have been the hawk Known Mojave by skyward view Flown the length of Snake Canyon in more than one dream But it is not to be the hawk that is my dream It is to be the air in the bones of the hawk to be the air in the bones air