Duboce Dog Park

Castro - San Francisco, CA

Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM

Five stars.

The Chickenhawk tucked in her wings, folded her tail and dropped from the sky silent as falling snow. Hooked beak sighted on the park below as if the bird could pierce the crust of the earth and add to her dominion the world beneath. A heartbeat from striking the ground she spread her broad wings, talons scything toward the grass her beak still closed and silent and from the park she plucked a black and tan Chihuahua. The dog yelped as the talons snapped shut around its bony frame, the dog’s master nearby but intent on a small computer phone. The hawk hovered for a moment laboring with her reeling prize and then with great wing beats she climbed skyward. Past the trees and rooftops to a kingdom ruled by laws not of man but of blood alone. The two figures receded toward the noon sun, an unknowable hieroglyph in silhouette, journeying to that hot orb or another destination beyond the pale.

The dog at last relaxed in the clawed embrace. For the first time feeling nature’s caress.