PEREGRINE

By Elizabeth Cunningham
IlluStration by James Tucker

Beyond the grit and screech

of the grim city,

a reStless field of cumulus shifts

above piercing cliffs of sheer glass.

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If you look up to find the sky,

it is too bright in the towering glare.

At your feet, gray pigeons shuffle

through the rumble and dust.

against all the closed doors

waiting for a crack

to let the light in.

In the city there is a hawk
that soars between the skyscrapers
and neSts in their broken crevices.

Its searching eyes ceaselessly seeking release.

Its slick slate feathers are layered with soot,

reptilian toes rasp at the windows.

Suddenly, its hunched shoulders angle upwards
as its golden eyes glare at the opening in the sky.

Its great grey wings shudder as it rises.
It flies towards its fate where,
relentlessly, the world is turning

while far below, the pigeons wait.

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