Putting New Eyes on a Hawk, an Owl, and a Falcon
I’ve given the falcon Botticelli eyes.
Clipped them from a book of Virgin Mary
paintings, pasted them right onto the bird’s face—
soft, loving eyes for a raptor.
I’ve glued the eyes by da Vinci onto
the barn owl. She appears
to be listening to the inside of her heart.
And as for the hawk, the eyes of Raphael’s
Madonna and Child. Hawk, with no scruples,
now devoted, kind.
Too hard, too hard, Mary says,
for a woman like me.
Give the job to a buzzard—
he hasn’t any heart.
Sandy Weisman is a poet and visual artist with poetry that has been included in two anthologies and several other journals, including Salamander, Spillway, Barrow Street, and Muddy River Poetry Review. She is the owner of 26 Split Rock Cove, a privately owned artist community of studios, artist living space, and workshops overlooking Mussel Ridge Channel in S. Thomaston, ME.