They did the deed of darkness <br />In their own mid-light. <br /> <br /> <br />He plucked a gray field mouse <br />Suddenly in the wind. <br /> <br /> <br />The small dead fly alive <br />Helplessly in his beak, <br /> <br /> <br />His cold pride, helpless. <br />All she receives is life. <br /> <br /> <br />They are terrified. They touch. <br />Life is too much. <br /> <br /> <br />She flies away sorrowing. <br />Sorrowing, she goes alone. <br /> <br /> <br />Then her small falcon, gone. <br />Will not rise here again. <br /> <br /> <br />Smaller than she, he goes <br />Claw beneath claw beneath <br />Needles and leaning boughs, <br /> <br /> <br />While she, the lovelier <br />Of these brief differing two, <br />Floats away sorrowing, <br /> <br /> <br />Tall as my love for you, <br /> <br /> <br />And almost lonelier. <br /> <br /> <br />Delighted in the delighting, <br />I love you in mid-air, <br />I love myself the ground. <br /> <br /> <br />The great wings sing nothing <br />Lightly. Lightly fall.<br /><br />James Arlington Wright<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/you-and-i-saw-hawks-exchanging-the-prey/
