Paying Attention: Fierce beauty

photo: Beth Surdut 2018

I'd been looking down for snakes as I walked in the desert heat,

 but when when I came round the bend, 

I immediately sensed I was being watched.

The Cooper's hawk was wary,

 in the way that predators are,

 but we both knew who had the right of  way.

photo: Beth Surdut 2018

I continued on, the lizards and bunnies all skittering and hopping away from me,

thinking they were running for their lives

even though they were taking the path to death.

I never shrug and burp up the pablum of "circle of life'

or "nature red in tooth and claw."

Instead, I hope that prey animals die immediately, 

not suffering, 

not wounded, 

not slowly suffocating,

not festering.

If death can be good, then may each precious little life die a good death.