"He began to shake and shudder and was soon carried off by wild beasts." -James Tate, from Memoir of the Hawk

Intended Recipient

I came across a man sleeping on a park bench with feathers and bird blood pasting his mouth, and I felt so strangely drawn to him that I followed him after he woke up to the park, where he climbed a few trees and began snatching birds out of their nests, the birds not moving or giving any signs of protest. I kept a safe distance because the birds told me that he was a murderer and that if I looked at his eyes I would be transfixed and I wouldn’t be able to protest like the birds and he would eat me, but a bee from the flowers landed on my nose and stung me, and I howled and ran like the delicate wolf that I was.