Hawks could teach bullets a thing or two —
see one precisely repeating
the terrified unpredictable zigzags
of a mountain pipit.
And gulls and aeroplanes — can a plane
turn over and backwards and
slam stunningly into the sea — to re-emerge
with a ruffle and begin unwinding
the same long spool of flight?
These are swift and beautiful. But watch
for the gull, the slow flier, the airy loiterer
that can pause, dead still,
curved on the air
like a hand on a breast.