Vigil

Vigil

I sit at the window
Drinking morning tea
As robins and chickadees
Chatter their warnings.
The roadrunner
Appears on the sidewalk,
Thin legs pumping in pursuit,
Speckled plumage erect,
His sharp face alert,
A killer and a savage predator.
I hurry out
To drive him
From the yard and
He faces me, unafraid.
He is the enemy.
He hunts the songbirds
And is successful.
Tears them to ragged shreds,
Leaves behind in the grass
Torn clumps of feathers,
Scatterings of tiny bones,
And often,
The entire discarded head.
I shovel up
His leavings
And carry it away.
Today
I drive him out.
He darts through
My iron gate.
Across the street
He jumps onto
The high wall,
Leaps to a neighbor’s
Flat roof and into
Pine trees,
Hidden and waiting.
He will come again
But I’m watching.
So are the birds,
Who forget
And sing anyway.