Unbroken

A poem about freedom

Never saw what blasted my foot away despite the brilliance of my fabled eyes; mapping the fields below in tight, precise lines, each offering up its grid of prey.

My choice of dinner. Their unlucky day. Suddenly bloody, agape with surprise, pain-dazzled, as the earth seemed to rise to clutch me, break me, toss me away.

But worse to wake tethered, no longer free though gently treated and liberally fed; a living demonstration, a hawk red in tail; scarred survivor for all to see.

Resisting the urge to huddle and hide. Staring down the world with unbroken pride.