PERHAPS

The talons of a Golden Eagle
squeeze a squirrel beneath
the blades of pasture green

not far from the screen door
I close quietly behind me. A second
lands beside the first to begin

the meal. Several shades of bronze
shimmer in mid-day flight
as the first leaves the second

to eat alone—long flap of wings,
sure and purposeful. Sweet partnerships
grow wild, yet sometimes seem more

civilized than what we see among men.
Perhaps the Bird and Animal people
placed devotion, the selfless heart

into the tribe they created—or perhaps
we learned what we now claim
exceptional from birds and animals.