REDTAIL HAWK, & SAND (2 poems)

REDTAIL HAWK

I am the redtail hawk of imagination
From the blood of my prey
I learned the persistence of red at sunset.
The sun taught me the importance of thermal updrafts.
My wings learned to trust the density of air.
My eyes gained the inside of distances
Desire learned to move like the sea
Inside inside the stormy halo of my cry. 

21 Sept 1996 

Walker Creek

SAND

I am the despair of sand
always searching for a lost home.
The wind drives me to a frenzy
It drives me from the crest of mountains
to the depths of the sea. 

Once I counted the breath of stars 

from the top of Everest to the Dead Sea. 

Then I found myself falling 

from subterranean cliffs 

to the dark crevasses of the earth.
I have measured time in faithful increments 

for those who needed that kind of solace.
I have scoured the faces of mountains 

until they forgot how to be jagged 

until they forgot how to cut the air

until they forgot how to stand tall as the sky. 

21 Sept 1996 

Walker Creek