torment of Prometheus
monarch of the skies;
twice now Eagle and I
have caught each other
unawares; transfixed
I watched the wings’
lumbering ungainly striving
for purchase on the yielding
air, then settle into soaring;
across the continent and
span of years, breasting a rise
to startle a second Eagle
transfixed, gorging roadkill;
that same desperate and
awkward striving this time
doomed ‑ slain by Prometheus
and happenstance, yet still
with power to gnaw my vitals
I encountered my first eagle when bushwalking in the high country around Canberra, late 1980s; the second, driving in Western Australia’s southwest, January 2005.
11 June 2013
© the Revd James M McPherson
Maryborough Qld