Bird Strike Poem by Sheena Blackhall

For hawks, there's no speed limit in the sky
No air traffic control can intercept them
Their bird strikes are wing on wing

At Battersea Power station
High upon mast or crane
Peregrine's piercing eyes survey the scene

Merciless, he stoops,
Beheading a dove or buzzard
He falls like a guillotine

He may nest on the houses of parliament
Tate modern, the sides of the hospital
At Charing Cross

From cathedral or skyscraper
He swoops at break-neck speed
200 mph of instant death

Monogamous, he mates for life
Cossets his gap-beaked brood

No more countryside for him
He's king of the London skies