Whenever I approached
The hawk was aloof
Rude or reclusive
Insisting upon a vast
Distance between us
This new acquaintance
Kestrel or peregrine
From its markings
Its belly as white
As the trillium below
I’d like to imagine
As an osprey entirely
Dissimilar in disposition
Toys with my emotions
My routine through
The woods coincides
With his flight plan
As I’m usually distracted
Stepping over mud and roots
Undetected it waits until
I’m just a few steps away
Debating upon broaching
A “how-do-you-do?”
Then suddenly skittish
The too shy romantic
My fickle intimate
Bursts into flight
David Sapp, writer, artist, and professor, lives along the southern shore of Lake Erie in North America. A Pushcart nominee, he was awarded Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grants for poetry and the visual arts. His poems appear widely in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. His publications include articles in the Journal of Creative Behavior, chapbooks Close to Home and Two Buddha, a novel Flying Over Erie, and a book of poems and drawings titled Drawing Nirvana.
