What I miss most
leaving behind our country home
isn't the garden with its classic roses
the fruit trees - Queen Anne cherries
Fujis, Santa Rosa plums
It isn't even the turtles diving
from their log
or the heron come to dine
on frogs and little fish
and not the brilliant dragonflies playing
above the water lilies
or the pileated woodpeckers
with their nesting young
although that's certainly a loss
nor the deer with their dark eyes
grazing calmly in the north pasture
none of these come so vividly to mind
as the cries day after day
hour after hour
of the sharp-shinned hawk
calling and calling
calling to her mate