The Way of the Desert

Stealthily she comes on powerful wings,

dropping from the sky,

darting between houses,

as if they were canyon walls,

eyes fixed on her prize;

the hapless Gambel’s quail

with her brood of chicks feeding beneath my feeders.

The Cooper’s Hawk is spotted!

The birds EXPLODE with fear!

The quail run for cover

beneath the sheltering green skirts of a desert broom.

The hawks lands on my feeder pole and scours the yard with a hunter’s eye.

I run from the house like a screaming banshee to chase her away.

The hawk hesitates, then flies.

She is not afraid of me!

She, too, has hungry mouths to feed!

This is the way of the desert.

~kathie adams brown (May 29, 2013)