a hawk

there is a hawk on 14th and C eating a squirrel
it's legs are straddled over the body
hawk keeps looking up, checking safe and plunging beak back into what now appears
gobby red
i parked in no parking across from it & i have a good view
there is a woman sitting on a wooden fence across C street watching with her coke can
she stares and has not moved
the hawk appeared huge at first
a hulking predator hunched over prey
my eyes stuck to hawk
who is eating the stomach now, the guts
long strands of full entrails and organs are pulled from the grass
hawk looks around
hawk blinks
hawk’s eyes are perfectly round,
who is the predator here?
there is a guy walking his blonde afghan hound and he’s talking to the woman with the coke
their gestures describe how they got there
they point at the hawk
a nervous laugh from the man
a sense of warning
why is this huge predator on 14th and C?
isn’t think kind of like a bobcat sighting, and what would that mean?
a woman in gold nissan stops her car suddenly saying oh m god oh my god
backing up she points her phone at the hawk
she’s moving closer to get a better look
my friend adam drives by
craning his neck
hawk pulls a long string of intestine
the gold nissan lady looks scared
then she smiles
she’s SEEN something
hawk remains nonpluseed, but wary
it doesn’t halt the eating for cars as much as for other bird and dog sounds
more of the squirrel disappears
a mid forties woman is jogging laboredly along with ipod in. does she see the hawk? she does not. she ran right past him!
she is dressed in what looks like rain gear and appears to be running from something
she’s the closest a person that is not in a car has been to the hawk.
when he pulls up on the flesh, there is resistance
sometimes i hear bones breaking
hawk has eaten through the stomach now
working down from the head, probably at the leg muscles, or the back
the squirrel’s tail
in the grass is perpendicular to hawk’s own precise tail feathers
another squirrel leaps to a tree. it is fat and slow
it has no idea that there is a new hunter in the neighborhood.
or does it?
squirrel is safe with the hawk eating another squirrel
squirrel has climbed to the second lowest branch and sits atop
a man with a laundry bundle propped against his head notices
he sees me and talks to me
“i wish i had my camera phone!”
he tells me about the dinner plate sized tarantula he’d seen on his front deck in arizona
he’s seen snakes, all over his front yard
“a lotta them”
what the fuck is this hawk doing here?
why is it hunting in the city, where you’d think visibility for hunting would be bad?
did this hawk scavenge the squirrel?
something about the blood on his beak and throat says no
these pampered city squirrels are fat from the millions of acorns that fall
a guy with a mountain dew walks past
he sees it, and reaches for his pocket
but passes
pretending it isn’t there
the hawk looks at me