Saw a YouTube video with
a sparrowhawk pinning a pigeon
to the ground with its talons.
Two magpies were hassling the
sparrowhawk, maybe in an attempt
to rescue the captive pigeon.
Their efforts were in vain.
The sparrowhawk kept the trembling
pigeon trapped in its talons.
It pecked the poor pigeon to death.
Nothing but a pile of fluffy feathers
and scattered body parts left.
I found that enormously disturbing, a
gentle pigeon hacked to death by
a vicious predator’s beak.
And I wished I could have saved
that doomed, gentle pigeon.
Bob Boyd