Steeping into the coolness
this morning onto the back porch
to savor the breeze before
the temperature rises the last day
of the heat wave, we scan
the tree break, eventually noticing
a female Cooper’s hawk
facing away from us on a branch in
the oak, then we locate
her mate, a larger bird, the male,
in the hophornbeam,
the high forehead, the large slate-
silver breast, facilitating
identification, their prominence
in the tree break, fanned by
their black and white wings, their
striking sideward glances at
an advancing squirrel, chittering
alarm and scratching
at the tree bark. The mated pair
finally raising their wings
in unison, of one mind, together
momentarily perching
in the larch, then moving over to
the shade of the massive
pine, inadvertently making their
presence amid the branches
spectral before lifting themselves
up, trailing their shadows
preternaturally among the green
into the bright sunlight
and the increasing heat of the day,
leaving us speaking in whispers,
gazing upon the wind in the trees.
