as he walked reading a book he became keenly aware of a cry he heard  he tried to distinguish with his ears alone where it emanated  it seemed to come from all around him

                                                                he imagined a raptor aflight and therefore confusing himcrying from the sky that he couldnt see up into because of the canopy of arched trees limbs overhead

so he listened as a bat or dolphin might reversed echolocation

he listened hopeful that it might take to a tree roost  then reveal itself

it sounded formidable

                      and who didnt appreciate natural formidable creatures

inside a half kilometre it seemed the raptor had settled down

                                                                 he stopped walking along the roadside no longer read

he was possessed by his ears listening raptly to its occasional cries

listening he began walking backwards the cry behind him 

                                                               there were no curbsno sidewalks it was an old neighbourhood that didnt account for pedestrians or rather then there were insufficient cars to worry the mixing of vehicles and people afoot which was probably why he had affection for it he wasnt a squirrel to be run over hit him with a car and they better hope they killed him because he carried a kbar in a rucksack slung over his shoulder hed carried it since he was a teenager a gift from his older brother a Marine 

You’ll never know when you might need this.

                                               he branished it only twice  once in the city where four black teens took exception to him taking a shortcut through their neighborhood to reach the lakefront they chased him  he made a corner ahead of themturned and when they rounded it he had it in hand an went at them screaming Who wants it first! they bolted back around the cornerhe bolted in the direction he had been running  the second time he cut a deers throat  along a rural length of Wisconsin highway the truck ahead of him clipped itnever brakedkept right on going  as he passed he saw it convulsing in the tall grass in a narrow gully fashioned to divert rainwater he stopped walked back to it its hindquarters were twisted horribly its spine was probably broken 

You’ll never know when you might need this.

There he thought the cry was strongest to his right up  up in a tree   which tree  

he slowly turned to face a bank of trees downhill from him growing behind homes

he stole the sensual power out of his ears and fixed it to his eyes

There  threequarters up a digger pine nearly at the end of a ridiculouslythin branch among other branches there seemed a light tan patch a tanned breast it looked from where he stood like a huge chickentoo light to be a turkey easily a stone weight motionless asif it recognised the being down below was looking for it and not moving it appeared to be any one of several gray boughs of parasitic mistletoe thriving in the diggers crown 

then with another cry  eversoslightly it turned its headgave itself away perhaps unable to resist a tell

huge

a hawk

a young eagle

from where he stood he couldnt say 

he marveled at the gift of its presence and lingered  

several vehicles hurtled past him ignoring of the twentyfive mile per hour speed limit passing him they pulled briefly at his open jacket

maybe it was time to a carry a brick with the kbar 

                                                     You’ll never know when you might need this.

         

1317,  Day-between-Two-Ts,  30  1. 19

1400,  Sunday,  10  2. 19