this is what I see of their living / of their death I see feathers scattered
shadow of shape / a shroud without body / dear familiar grey
intimate blush / breast of opal / coloured like the creep of dawn
shattered  now
/
eaten I say
knowing the startle / the beat to escape/ the sharp / the heavy hot/
the cough and noiseless done

foxes sometimes catch / birds also peck apart / and once I saw
a raptor fly due west gripping fast a white fluttering still trying east east east
such sightings are not dreams but truths / ask: real? / answer: happening

feel the bird in a scurry of prepositions / above / below / beneath /
despite / down / during
except / for // no exception from soul-knowing this within without
once I will be dead no questions asked or answered
in the meantime a habit of living / of noticing blue/ the translucent morning/ of noting
how day and night are dusk and dawn always changing/ this is a kingdom I believe in

also I know / herons follow me everywhere  / everywhere
fishing for little silvers of meat glistening in dark waters
I sometimes feel tired of noticing hope / but its little fingers hold