Four, twenty-five-hundred-watt Halogens
Shining from shore to sea
As I stand on the sand,
The green and white surf before me
Illuminated and backlit, I can see perfectly,
As I’m watching an Osprey –
She’s flying ’round frantically
Scattered circles, and dips, and dives
She’s combing the surf,
Where her prey normally thrives
Unable to discern between day and these Dayglo night skies,
Because there’s 10,000 watts in her fish-eagle eyes
But there’s a fire in her belly
So She flies and flies and flies
Author’s note:
I have an affinity for the hawk, particularly the Osprey. It’s one of my spirit animals and I sometimes watch them hunt their prey in the morning light, just north of the pier near my house. Tonight I went for a walk and as I walked along the beach in front of a local hotel I spotted an Osprey flying around the surf attempting to hunt in this relatively small section of the beach that was lit up like New Years Eve. As I wrote this poem on my phone, the Osprey flew around erratically in front of me the entire time.
I felt captivated by the Osprey’s presence – it was an almost dreamlike metaphor for my own struggles to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm in light of what is.
If you enjoyed this, read my first published poem on another beautiful, albeit extinct bird, The Passenger Pidgeon
