The Eagle, The Rattler, And The Hare Poem by Lorenzo Costigliolo

Cloud cover pinhole view
instant
nanosecond shutter speed
two victims on trial for their lives

a thousand feet below on desert sand
rolling tumbleweeds through cactus witnesses
no jury of their peers
a rare visitor, weary hare lost, wandering,
wondering if he would get rattled
when that wriggling rascal struck
his lethal injection
head already reared in judgment posture:

hare guilty as charged for being there
trespassing
standoff, eye to hare-y eye,
one hare-line blink death sentence for one
drum roll rattler clacking its maracas
OK CORRAL confrontation -

trigger finger twitch
rattler snapping arched neck
wide mouth fanged probes
whipping forked tongue
lashing air
sinking tines into nothingness
on that sky ride Eagle Talon Show
above the rocky ridge on mesa face
where rattles dashed themselves to pieces
head crushed on craggy rocks
the eagle set afternoon delight
while hare hopped out of sight
reprieved for but another night..