Kestrel Killer

The Nankeen Kestrel ((Falco cenchroides) is a favourite raptor of mine. I see them every day on the Mundijong Road. But my relationship to them is ambivalent. Today is the anniversary of my killing one of their brethren. They hover and dive onto the roadside verges to catch their prey and I hit one in my Hybrid at 100klms per hour two years ago. Only now can I give expression to this powerful psychoterratic feeling.
This wonderful Image from:
http://www.flickriver.com/places/Australia/Western+Australia/Perth/Innaloo/

Kestrel Killer

Up ahead,
a Nankeen Kestrel with killer eyes                                                 
locked-onto a roadside rodent.                                                 
A crash dive catch and …

a turn to return to the sky.                                                      
Automobile meets aviator at
the intersection of feathers and steel.
Feeling thud physics at 100 clicks
turn orange oblivion cartwheels.                                
No bird return from such a hit
yet my wound will never heal.               

Long after the intersection
I am still caught in the addiction
of the calculus of stoop.                                                                    
My kestrel car eye
now scans for hovering tension.                              
A glimpse of nankeen
could kill me.