Hawks
Surely, you too have longed for this — 
to pour yourself out
on the rising circles of the air 
to ride, unthinking, 
on the flesh of emptiness.
Can you claim, in your civilized life, 
that you have never leaned toward 
the headlong dive, the snap of bones,
the chance to be so terrible, 
so free from evil, beyond choice?
The air that they are riding 
is the same breath as your own. 
How could you not remember? 
That same swift stillness binds 
your cells in balance, rushes 
through the pulsing circles of your blood.
Each breath proclaims it — 
the flash of feathers, the chance to rest 
on such a muscled quietness, 
to be in that fierce presence, 
wholly wind, wholly wild.

~ Lynn Ungar ~