Red-tail Hawks

by Antoni Ooto

looking for death
under a great cloudless sky

old hunger announcing winter
begins with a death sweep on an updraft

as instinct slows the circle, a swirling kettle,
raw beauty, wheeling in natural harmony

Drought

by Antoni Ooto

Summer’s end…
nothing speaks under a fevered sky. 

Hopeless, the pond surrenders.

A circle of frogs from high grass
watch my silhouette; 
a collective stare; 
thinking me, a prophet with sun-haloed hair.

Eyes fixed, pushed to the edge 
I turn with no apologies.

———

Antoni Ooto is a poet and flash fiction writer.  His works have been published in Burning House Press, Ginger Collect, Soft Cartel, Amethyst Review, Bangor Lit Journal, Nixes Mate Review, Pilcrow & Dagger, Red Eft Review, Ink Sweat & Tears, Young Ravens Literary Review, Front Porch Review, An Upstate of Mind and Palettes & Quills. Antoni lives and works in upstate New York with his wife, writer/storyteller Judy DeCroce.