Today’s violence is cross-referenced
under technology.
An eagle shot in the face by a hunter
successfully receives
a replacement beak. I do not know
who these people are
who snipe the sky & walk off
when they know they’ve missed the heart.
I know the eyes that spot
the dying animal, abandoned
for what’s called nature to deal with.
The hands responsible
for lifting the face & deciding to undo
what another human has done to it.
Someone will have to stabilize the bird
reading its deformity
for signs of infections.
Someone will have to see over
& over to suture the gash
where its beak once was,
another, engineer the yellow arc
so the bird can be outfitted
with a second chance,
photographed for science, released back
into its world as if only just returning
from a day of hunting mice.
I wonder what the hunters think
of these efforts taken to undo
their recklessness, the delicate building
back to square one after a failed
annihilation, & whether the part
of the body that registers shame
is ever called upon to answer.