Island Raptor

by Alice Feeley, RDC

Peregrine falcon makes an island stop along the Atlantic Flyway.

Banded, ready for release on a ridge

where music and words of wedding have begun.

Blessings are about to be raised

when falcon’s lift off calls for silence, wonder.

No one knows where it is going, only where it has been

but stories of this raptor’s global migration

will be revealed from a tell tale ring.

Wedding guests wave the falcon well

on its uncertain paths beyond.

Here on autumn grass a chance to breathe in grandeur,

love now pledged, committed

under the penetrating eyes of a falcon

who mates for life and

nests in cliffs close to the edge.