Free Flight

I gaze across the landscape of a purple-headed mountain,
and my eyes are drawn above it to a speck of moving air.

I strain to make out what the shape could be, and then I realize –
a female Golden Eagle is the form that hovers there.

Go softly, gallant creature, to your lofty mountain aerie,
keep far away from places that all men have seized upon.

Go guard against his greed and lust for fragile, speckled treasure;
make all tomorrow’s children safe until the men have gone.

You fly up high into the sky, and you can touch the glory
of God’s kind face and, through His grace, your will to live goes on.

Written 11/03/2009.  Published in Poetry.com, 2013.