Spared, my new life started

(last week) when I helped

a cow looking for Jesus

climb back down from a tree—

Bovine thought high vantage point,

Better view of Creation.

Later a cat in flight took down

A hawk by its leg

Who searched the Eightfold Path—

The raptor blinked at my approach,

I bandaged her wound

Before releasing her to her quest.

The changing leaves are rustling all around me

but even in autumn they have no eyes.

In the city:  4-5-6 brick columns

Guarding all the knowledge of the world:

The book-holders can’t read but stand

outside, smoking, lighting tips

of gossip, and puffing down

until they stomp out news

on the sidewalk.

I light a lantern, count the clouds,

change the hawk’s dressing

when she returns, searching backward—-

We sing to each other

Having no idea what the other is saying

except Yarak—ready for the hunt again—

 flying in the same direction.

 In the field nearby the fence

(barbed wire) is cut raggedly

down the middle, charred grass trampled,

our cow nowhere to be seen

as if lifted away

by Ezekiel’s Wheel.

About the Author:

Some of Danny Adams' work has appeared or is forthcoming in Weird Tales, Mythic Delirium, Not One Of Us, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Strange Horizons, Illumen, Star*Line, Scifaikuest, KidVisions, Revolution Science Fiction, and Abyss & Apex. He just completed The City Beyond Play, a short novel collaboration with Philip José Farmer.