Typewriter Rodeo: Ode To Buzzards

Each week, the Standard reaches out to Austin’s Typewriter Rodeo for a custom poem on Texas topics.

By Jodi EgertonNovember 10, 2017 9:30 am,

Seeing a circling buzzard near the roadway is usually a pretty good indication that something has died nearby. It’s also likely the scavenging bird will take care of what’s left of that roadkill critter.

Ode to Buzzards

Perched high atop the lamppost

Surveying all below

The noble bird waits patient

As traffic ebbs and flows

 

Preening feathers, flexing talons

And searching hither and yon

For the perfect feast of putrified flesh

Delectable carrion

 

Picking clean a roadkill carcass

Turning decay into fuel

The air’s now fresh, no stench, no rot

No more signs of the car-vs-deer duel

 

Give thanks to the bird of majesty

Stately visage more nature than culture

Our symbiotic friend, picking corpses til the end

Yon buzzard, yon wise turkey vulture.