Just Fly

Just Fly
by Mike Davis

Padding along the trail,
We ambled toward the car,
Dog’s nose pressed to ground,
Human noses pressed forward,
Next stop, the car.
My mind focused on that next thing.

Then, the screech of a red-tailed hawk,
My eyes peered around me.
Where does that clear,
Piercing, cry come from?
And there, off to the right
Riding the air currents
Along the length of the creekbed

Flying with clarity, attention,
And flawless beauty.
It was in it’s moment,
Caught up in flow,
Perhaps in search of food,
Maybe in the glory of
The physics of lift,
Oblivious to it’s mechanics
Caught up only in it’s awareness
Of Avian Consciousness

This is what a Red-Tailed Hawk does,
It’s flight seems to say.
I fly like this.

Oh, that I could release
My insistence on understanding,
My doubts, Judgments,
And my death grip
Pursuit of the next thing.
That I could soften and release
Not wondering about flight.
Just flying.
Glorious flying.

She soon passed from sight.

I, too, want to fly.