THE SEA HAWK AND THE NEEDLE FISH

for Bonnie Flach

We are digitally immortalised now

by chance – erstwhile strangers, flesh, fish and fowl.

My San Diego social media

poetry acquaintance – someone I am

never likely to meet in a city

I am unlikely ever to visit –

has taken and blogged a photo

of a sea hawk and a needle fish.

Against a clear, pale blue Pacific sky

the raptor, its wings splayed in lift,

clutches the fish, whose long, sharp jaw is agape,

blood oozed on its narrow flanks where talons

will now grip forever.