The Cooper’s hawk twitches a carcass
at the oak tree’s roots, a block from the hospitals.

Such cruelty & cars reckless
blast past me on Boston’s Riverway.

I watch a driver in a white SUV
windows tinted

fly by at 60 in a 30-mph zone
& slam a crow as it lifts above asphalt

broken wings thrushed to panic
in the heart of matter.

Somewhere, a child
is calling a small dog’s name.

Somewhere, a barred owl
hears the heartbeat of its prey.

Just this morning, on the lamp’s base
I stubbed my toe, it throbbed & throbbed.

Collisions that yoke a power
we are powerless to.

Even god-like Achilles, warrior
most fierce, most beautiful

could not escape the vault
of death coveting Troy.

He paced the beach, pulled back by his hair,
heels sinking in the sand.

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