Serenity of the Fall Forest

Whistling as it swoops north then south over the

tree canopy wings wide, swept high by the wind

and its own powerful avigation, the hawk banks

seamlessly, swerves and returns to its starting point

then reverses the swerve repeatedly sweeping the

aerial landscape even as it observes the landscape

below. The forest in fall mode of serene expectation

of its leaf-barren state but not quite yet. Its leaf mass

flaunts a range of rainbow colours while every

exhalation of wind drives a kaleidoscope of foliage

floating lazily to the forest floor. Soon the hawk 

absents itself and in its place a series of southward

bound geese in a formation of disciplined ritual

crease the cloud-streaked sky one after another in

the inherited memory urgency of their annual migration. 

As dusk falls robins, nuthatches and chickadees

snuggle themselves deeper into the confines of

all-embracing cedars and hemlocks. The whistle is

once again heard warning nocturnal forest dwellers

the hunt is on as both the forest owl and the hawk

listen for furtive scrambling, smell the odour of prey.