The way a creature keeps looking around
when it is holding down a smaller creature
while pecking it to death

can serve to balance the sight
of a field of wildflowers
or morning sun on the face of an ochre cliff.

Today from the cabin window
I watched a hawk
swiveling its feathered head and mad eye

as it jabbed at the young grey mouse
which it had pinned
to the ground with one claw

but always checking this way and that
for the shadow of a thing
grand enough to take it down.

Illustration by Blair Thornley