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A Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) harasses a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), Sussex County Landfill, Lafayette, New Jersey: photo by Tom Smith, 4 March 2009
January 17, 1987
I saw a red-tailed hawk
flying inland today. My son
pointed him out flying around the tree tops
in our town over the highway
resting in the branches
of the highest trees, then disappearing.
O hawk of our inner brain and vision
powerful as a microbe invading life,
beautiful as a comet in the night
subtle as the weak force
curving the universe left,
painful as the spark that gives us life.
JosephCeravolo (1934-1988): January 17, 1987from Collected Poems, 2012
A mature Red-tailed Hawk landing on a windbreak tree in farm country, Alpha, New Jersey: photo by Dah Professor, 22 December 2009