NaPoWriMo #14: Sparrowhawk

A silhouette
amorphous,

from a distance
resembles its prey.

In the branches
a silent jet fighter,

songbirds beware
of lethal eyes

and the talons
which follow them.

NaPoWriMo #26: Watchmen of Mull

Continuing the animal theme for the last few days of NaPoWriMo, I give you a poem centering on birds which went extinct in Britain more than a century ago, but were successfully reintroduced on islands such as Mull in the Inner Hebrides.

Watchmen of Mull

They sat on the clifftops
surveying the Firth of Lorn
in the days when the raptors
ruled the skies above the isles.

The sea eagles fished alongside
the humans on their vessels.
Myths of their viciousness
spread across the isles like rot,

and so did the hunters and trappers.
They purged the land for miles
of the kings and queens of the air,
until their sympathetic descendants

facilitated the eagles' restoration
to their old thrones on the cliffs.
Now the eagles soar over Mull,
snatching fish from the bay,

following their fishermen friends,
raising chicks in the old pines
and watching over their kingdom
should the old threats rear their heads.

NaPoWriMo #3: Microraptor

For day three of NaPoWriMo I'm attempting to push the boat out a bit. Today's poem centres on a tiny dinosaur discovered in China at the turn of the millennium. Anyone who's familiar with dinosaurs or indeed the work of James Gurney will recognise this animal.

Microraptor

A flat splayed skeleton,
a bird's long-lost grandfather,
a tiny skull, like a robin with teeth
and four feathery wings.

Spider fingers hooked with claws,
feet clutched like those of a crow,
a tail lined with wafer-thin plumage
and four feathery wings.

The transition is clear,
yet the differences clearer,
a creature of two lineages
with four feathery wings.