someone said there was an eagle
living free around these parts
    feathers bright in the June sun;
    wait for it to come to you and you would miss it
    spiraling, waiting to be beheld

so we stood ready at the mountaintop,
poised to behold
    two brown wings without regard to classification,
    vulture talons held up to ride
    upon this breeze; here, capture the wind

and perhaps the wind itself captured
the us & them & it of the world
    eyes born to hold tight to significance
    tracking the monster of death & not liberty
    freer than any creature seen in the many ages past