the armchair bird lover in the raptor house
when a bald eagle flies two feet above your brain
you realize
if it wanted to end your day early, it could
I’ve seen Hitchcock’s The Birds several times
it never felt terrifying to me — or if it did, it was the loss of control
not the birds themselves
but today, learning that the Peregrine Falcon
can drop from the sky at nearly 300 miles per hour
and has a beak designed to break cervical vertebrae
well, let’s just say I get why Tippi Hedren was screaming
I’ve always loved birds — the first nickname I ever had was “Jaybird”
bestowed on me by the Franciscan friar who also gave me
my first idea of what I might like to do for a living
I’m the kind of suburban bird lover, though
who’ll put several feeders in the backyard
without ever learning the names of the birds who show up
oh, I buy bird books and I own a pair of high-quality binoculars
but I can’t see colors well enough to use the books
and I mostly use the binoculars to look at the stars
recently I adopted two small parakeets whose Aboriginal name means
“good for eating”
once I had flying pets in my house I realized
I loved having them swoop and swirl around me
though not everyone does
my friend asked “why don’t raptors attack people?”
I don’t know the answer
all I can say is we’re lucky they’ve decided to share the planet
rather their enforce their much-older claim
3 March 2013
Auburn, AL
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