
Young RedTail Hawk, Jane Kohut-Bartels, watercolor
Bodhirose ( Gayle) is hosing Open Link Night over at d’versepoets.com, where you can post one poem of your desires. No prompt.
Lady Nyo
Chicken Hawk!
Leave my chickens alone!
I have worked hard for them,
A handmaiden of fowl.
Collecting beautiful eggs
The gift of the species
Naturally dyed
Pink, brown, blue-green and white.
These colorful gems
Presented at Easter,
A symbol of the Lamb of God,
And the Spring of Life.
Leave my chickens alone, hawk.
I won’t even share.
I remember two short years ago,
When I saw you wheeling over the kudzu
Riding the thermals,
Not graced with the brick-colored tail of a proper Red Tail hawk–
And I gasped at your splendor, a winged god
From the cosmos, glittering white ash against a cobalt sky,
And you landed one day in my birdbath,
Trying to look like a stone sculpture,
And just the flicker of your 8x eyes
Looked over the songbirds for lunch.
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2016
Tags: "Chicken Hawk Talk", dversepoets.com, Open Link Night, poetry
October 19, 2017 at 7:43 pm
Nature’s dance is wild and untamed which is how I like it. Not so good if you keep chickens though 😉
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October 19, 2017 at 7:53 pm
I would also dislike the hawk if I had chickens to watch over… but as a bird of prey there is something so magnificent in a hawk
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October 19, 2017 at 8:05 pm
yes, they are. And I have only had a few chickens killed by hawks in 25 years.
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October 19, 2017 at 8:07 pm
LOL! Nope, not for the chickens. Thanks, Paul. But with the coyotes, racoons, snakes, (my kitten just brought in one …copper brown with a black head…) birds of prey, peregrines, opossums, rabbits and other critters 3 miles from downtown Atlanta, we have a veritible jungle here.,
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October 19, 2017 at 8:09 pm
It’s a miracle you have any chickens at all with that lot in proximity.
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October 19, 2017 at 8:19 pm
I like the wildness in this, in spite of the chickens. My grandmother had a coop and roost genced in with chicken wire over the top to protect the chickens that wandered about the hen house. I’m bad. I know it. I love hawks…..
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October 19, 2017 at 10:08 pm
Me, too. I love hawks. We had a cooper’s hawk fly over for some chicken in the pot…..and she mantled across our back porch looking for more. It’s been about 8 years now, and I still see her in the sky above from time to time. Cooper’s have a territory of about 400 acres for nesting and hunting. We have some big red tails, too. That little painting is of a freshly fledged RT.
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October 19, 2017 at 10:09 pm
yeh. LOL! We try for “Peaceable Kingdom” but it’s really just a dream.
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October 20, 2017 at 1:04 am
We have a hawk who trolls our bird-feeders from time to time. All will be well, the cardinals, jays and finches happily munching when suddenly the jay sets up loud warning and everyone flies away. Then we know he’s near. You’ve depicted him brilliantly. Well done!
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October 20, 2017 at 1:15 am
Sorry about your chickens and having to fight off those damn hawks…but I too love hawks. I’m always stunned when I see a Red-Tailed Hawk just from their size and presence. We would sometimes find piles of (usually dove) feathers under the bird feeders and we knew a hawk most likely had gotten them. Doves are slow and maybe a little daft. 🙂
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October 20, 2017 at 2:38 am
lol…yeah,….doves are slow and a little daft. I still feed them in parking lots, though. They are generally beautiful birds. Thanks, Gayle.
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October 20, 2017 at 2:39 am
Thank you, Beverly. From long acquaintances I guess. LOL! Thanks for reading and your comment.
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