Two young hawks, no experience, only instincts,
walked into the garage and then into the kitchen.
Did they think they were on their way to something
or was the intent to get away from whatever
it is that scares young red tail hawks who know
only to get as far away from trouble as possible?

Having done their part by bringing mice and lizards,
the parent hawks had left the young ones alone;
So they hopped and walked and tried their wings
until they got to Ed’s place on Windmill View Road
where they figured, I guess, he was expecting them;
so they walked right in and made themselves at home.

Ed found them there, one by the fireplace in the living room,
and the other in the great room with lots of big windows.
As people sometimes are with passages that seem easy
but are as hard as glass that allows seeing but not passing,
the hawks tried over and over the only thing they knew to do:
they flew into what seemed as clear as the air outside a nest.

The one in the big room found an open door to outside
and walked through it to perch on a porch swing and wait.
The one beside the fireplace needed help to find its way;
Ed threw a blanket over it, which the hawk understood
because after a short flutter it settled quietly and waited
until it could be picked up and taken out into the open air.

Reunited outside the two flew off unsteadily but determined.
Ed said he wanted to keep them but knew it wouldn’t be best
for them, so now he still says they are his hawks, but free
to fly and hunt and live as hawks do... but there is a catch:
Two crows think the universe with Ed’s house as center
belongs to them, and no upstart hawks are welcome...

The hawks flew into what they must have thought safe
space, a towering eucalyptus on the canyon’s edge;
but adult crows are smarter than young red tailed hawks.
The crows flew into the tree and forced the newcomers out
into open air and chased them away over the deep arroyo.
The crows claimed the air, diving and pecking and screaming.

The hawks refused to leave the place that gave them refuge.
They were there the second day, still harassed by the crows,
learning how to fly and glide above the beautiful valley where
lizards and mice and snakes slither and scamper in tall grass.
Ed prefers to believe a bond between him and the birds
was established in the short time they were in his house.

We will wait and watch how nature takes its course.
Was it Jesus who said, “Consider the birds of the air”?
Is there room in the short valley for hawks and crows...
content to live together where crows eat seeds and bugs
and red tail hawks need only mice and snakes and lizards?
Will they reach a compromise that serves them both?