Hawkman

I was running one day,
Just after lunch down a closed road
But it packed a punch
I turned a left and was running for my life
But the road was a blood track
It was a bleeding Bleadney knife

The sun was kinda yellow
But I didn't know where it did go
The wind was blowing one hell of a
Lot of air around the world
And my heart was beating mellow
As the tractors fanned their fare
I was not an attractor of a single hair

Nothing seemed to notice me
I was like a ghost in this place
All the sides of a mirror reflected in my face
The muscles strung, like a bow
But I ran on, I ought a know

Until I reached a clump of trees

When I began to slow
My breath in my breast was running kinda low
I felt my legs weaken a bit
And saw in the trees a shadow
Like fluttering, the shape of a wing
Dark and foreboding in truth, but to me it was nothing
I kept moving forward when out of the blue came a blow
Some talons had struck me on the skull
The culprit something bigger than a crow

I immediately turned around, struck dumb
In shock and horror
The offending bird was swooping off into the high boughs
Of the poplar
I turned back and felt relieved
At the retreat of this winged foe
And kept on running when to my surprise
Came a second blow
This one seemed more determined
Like how a killer would go
And whatever claw or talon
Sunk into my scalp in tow

I felt atop my cranium
And brought down blood wetted finger
Just like the tips of uranium
The bullets radioactivity did linger

The bird wandered off again above
Into the heights of shadow
And I ran on not believing my luck
To be caught on the wrong side of the rainbow

No pot of gold awaited me
And I wandered down a side track
But as I scratched my head
A bloody feather there instead
Began to grow from the site of attack

Soon I was rushing faster, through
thistle and thorn trying to master
This crazy feeling inside
My arms start to itch
And I rub them and rip, little bits of skin from my scalp
Beneath my skin it shows, the sign a hawk knows
Feathers like a Jackdaw's, wings, and tail sores
And my heart in a palpitating palp

I'm rushing now like a crooner, like spooner
Through nettles and elder
My frame is bending, like a bird offending
The human form is unwrapped

I fell, stumbled, I collided with bare earth
And that marked the start of my rebirth
What used to be my arms, began to break
And muster, themselves into the wings of a raptor
My legs they retreated inside my body, and my feet, grew talons
And a great imposing ferocity

My nose began to itch as well,
And soon grew hard to my bird-like touch
I felt my eye brows and skull, changing as well
More stream-lined like a visor or such
My mouth lost its teeth and morphed into my nose
To form what was to be my beak
And I let out the most gut-wrenching yell
Now only in bird language did I speak

I screeched a hawk's high cry
A human tear still rolled from my eye
But now I knew my transformation was complete
I studied myself, and my form
The Hawkman had just been born
And what shall he do now I thought
But try to fly as I ought

I turned back down the old track
Where the remains of my shredded clothes
Lay down on their back
And I ran, or clawed or half-hopped
along the ground, until
I beat my wings faster, and faster in report
Like drums of air they beat
And the ground soon fell away from my feet
And the freedom of air, the exhilaration there
Was more than I could ever speak

And I headed back down to that darkened clump
Where that foul loathsome beast did dwell
Fully intending to vanquish my enemy
And send him straight to hell
But as I did swoon in the pale afternoon
As the wind did ruffle my feathers
No feeling had I ever experienced of being higher
Than humans could go alone or together
I realized that I was free
Free from what it meant to be human
Free from my bonds, from purgatory
Free from society's expectations
Nothing that I could hope for in life
Would have earnt me what this subtle knife
Had cut away from my sinewy brain
The pain of all desire and strife

I met my once foe in the air
We circled around with great care
Keeping our distance
Trying to figure each other out
Then I saw in her eyes
That glint, that spoke of human intelligence
Could it be that this hawk now free
Was once a human the same as me?

We flew back to her nest
Two young chicks, newly hatched
Not yet fledged
So that was what she was warning me from
Surely the measure was second to none
I felt no malice or scorn
As I looked upon these lives freshly born
How could I judge from above
This new kingdom of Human-Hawk love