Maeve Reilly

We all have to eat 
Mr Buzzard
we all have to twist
sideways, eyes 
down, hovering
to get the best
drop 
on our prey, tonight 
you soar as high
as the 17th floor
of this condo-
minium while 
down below
at tables and bars
humans home in
with knives & tines
and white white teeth
lacerating incarcerated 
animal intelligence–
rare 
medium rare 
well done 
then nicely wiping
lips, if you please
Mr Buzzard,
if you please.

Maeve (aka Jeri) Reilly lives in Minnesota on the traditional homelands of the Mdewakanton Dakota. Her most recent words can be found in Crannóg #55 (Ireland), Dark Mountain #19 (UK), Celtic Junction Arts Review #16 (St. Paul, MN), Amethyst Review, Utne Reader, and The Lonely Crowd, (Wales), forthcoming November 2021, and several anthologies including “If Bees Are Few,” University of Minnesota Press, and in the sidewalks of St. Paul. Tweets @MaeveWriter.