Shadow of a Hawk
The flank of the mountain
is filled with lupine—
unexpected, the largest stand yet.
Bright afternoon sun
lights the purple slope,
where the hawk’s shadow
glides like a dark window
between this world and the next.
Some will not make it
through this day, shattering
at the sharp fall of the predator.
The survivors will flee, hide,
then emerge despite
the nature of chance.
Every sliver of life glitters
against that black background.
Cynthia Anderson lives in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree National Park. Her award-winning poems have appeared in journals such as Askew, Dark Matter, Apercus Quarterly, Whale Road, Knot Magazine, and Origami Poems Project. She is the author of five collections—”In the Mojave,” “Desert Dweller,” “Mythic Rockscapes,” and “Shared Visions I” and “Shared Visions II.” She frequently collaborates with her husband, photographer Bill Dahl. Cynthia co-edited the anthology A Bird Black As the Sun: California Poets on Crows & Ravens.
Inlandia: A Literary Journey 