Hawk in Winter

For Ted Hughes

Hawk sits atop the television aerial

Perched, eyes fixed,

Scanning the alley below for palatable vermin:

A mouse scurrying from a gutter,

A rat picking through a dumpster,

A squirrel walking the telephone wire.

In the full moon of December

Hawk sees only garbage strewn between

Cracked brick facades...

Bottles cast down and broken.

Hawk in winter

Doesn't feel the cold,

Only the hunger,

The need to sustain,

To feed,

To be.