The Owl Cries at Night

- Freya Manfred's "The Owl Cries at Night," as it appears in her collection Swimming with a Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle, published by Red Dragonfly Press. 

The owl cries at night,

and I imagine her wide gold eyes

and feathered ears tuned

to the trembling woods and waters,

seeing and hearing what

I will never see or hear:

a red fox with one bloody paw,

a hunch-backed rabbit running,

sand grains grating on the shore,

a brown leaf crackling

under a brown mouse foot.

With so much to learn,

I could stop writing forever,

and still live well.

- Freya Manfred