Little Deaths

© 1999 R.G. Liberty
All rights reserved.

Soft sun breathing lightly, life into the new grass
Surly human, burnt by the strengthening sun
Riding his belching mower
Tearing with blunt blades
Shearing with fine fishing line
Interrupting harmony

Older armies (done - not done)
Marching with purpose
Accepting the detritus as manna
Clicking acknowledgment to Omnipotence
With supplicating mandibles
Chitinous dead gathered, harvested and stored
As feed for the new, the recent, the done hatchlings.

Wide-bodied dragonflies hover to inspect
Alight and dine
Hover again to observe the
Scurrying below them - not panic just pheromone omens.
Quadruple synchronous beating wings
Drone danger and death
Done - not done, run yes run.
Alights and dines again.

Red bird Cardinal perched on a marsh reed
Keen eye slipping side-to-side, down
Thick air beneath teeming with predators - prey
Tiny synchronous drone, a beacon booming in its ears
Wide bodied morsel flying close now, close enough
Clear wings crushing in a yellow beak
Done

Brown-flecked Peregrine cloud high, sure eye
Red flash below
Wings swept and talons stretched in a steep dive
Slamming, stunning grasping - hooked beak tearing
Red feathers, red flesh
Blood and tissue raining down
Past darting dragonflies
Flying by

Splashing through the shortened grass
Drumming onto moistened soil
Calling muster for hungry hoards
Flesh and feathers collected with autonomic precession
Unrelenting care
Nothing wasted.

Down
Taken down past leaf and blade and stem and root
To mingle with stores in labyrinthine pockets
Underground
Taken down
Done

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