County Road E Pole Sitter

Eagle Poem
by Joy Harjo

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you
And know there is more
That you can't see, can't hear
Can't know except in moments
Steadly growing, and in languages
That aren't always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.

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Up till a week ago, I took the new four lane highwayto and from work. It cuts drive time down by at least 10 minutes. You can really fly!

However, I miss taking the old route that heads west on County Road E off of 65. Since I've started taking that drive again, every morning there has been at least one mature bald eagle post sitting by Twin Lakes. This morning, there was a mature eagle with an immature eagle sitting next to him. They were crowded together. I seen these eagle on these posts regualrly for the past five years and I have not seen that before. Usually they take separate posts.

Suddenly, I had to hit the breaks to slow down for a family of Canadian geese that decided to cross the road to the lake. They were living dangerously, but everybody made it. The male had to do some serious wing flapping and honking to remind me who had the right-of-way.

On the way home from work there must have been 10 families of geese swimming in the lake a long the south edge of the road. The water was calm, the sky blue and the wakes off their rumps sparkled in the late afternoon sunlight.

It was a real parade with varying numbers of babies swimming between mom and dad. One pair had two babies and another looked like they had 10 babies. It was definately a good day to motor the family around the lake.

An adult eagle was sitting on the same post I had passed in the morning. I honk at him and told him to get a job. Must be tough hanging out on a telephone all day dodging the deadly rays of the sun.