Vulture - Robinson Jeffers

[Larry Robinson]

Vulture

I had walked since dawn and lay down to rest on a bare
hillside
Above the ocean. I saw through half-shut eyelids a
vulture wheeling
     high up in heaven,
And presently it passed again, but lower and nearer,
its orbit
     narrowing,
     I understood then
That I was under inspection. I lay death-still and
heard the flight-
     feathers
Whistle above me and make their circle and come
nearer.
I could see the naked red head between the great wings
Bear downward staring. I said, "My dear bird, we are
wasting time
     here.
These old bones will still work; they are not for
you." But how
     beautiful
     he looked, gliding down
On those great sails; how beautiful he looked, veering
away in the
     sea-light
     over the precipice. I tell you solemnly
That I was sorry to have disappointed him. To be eaten
by that beak
     and
     become part of him, to share those wings and
those eyes--
What a sublime end of one's body, what and enskyment;
what a life
     after death.

	- Robinson Jeffers




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