Osprey Sunset

Photo and Poem by Tom Hooten

Placid he perches drying a wing

wet from feeding his Osprey offspring.

I, in excitement, check my focus,

my framing of nature; to him, hocus pocus.

But then to my own disbelief

as his image attains sharp relief,

my stolid Sea Hawk, Pandion Haliaetus,

has his back to Sol’s glorious hiatus!

He sees a world I cannot share,

ultraviolet, magnetic maps in the air.

My vision of beauty in overload

is, to him, Mona Lisa’s winding road.

As I stare in rapture

this beauty to capture,

what I finally see

is him watching me.

 

TOM HOOTEN received his Master’s Degree in Physiological Psychology from Auburn University, was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force (retired), and had a second career as a Human Resources Director. He has published two scientific research papers (co-authored), a science fiction novel, Hollytime, an essay, "The Physics of Fidget Energy," and several poems. He is in sunny Florida working on Alicetime, the sequel to Hollytime.