Kestral Sky

A kestrel flies the sky with slow wing strokes, then glides in and out of invisible windows. Of a sudden - stillness - no sign of a hover, as if a child's kite had caught an updraught and ceased upon the wind. Did a field rat stand on two legs to sniff a waft of air? Did its long pink nose twitch, its whiskers tremble? Down plunges a glimmer-flash of feathered wings. Down comes a thunderbolt of silence. A strike! The rodent is snatched-up by far-reaching talons. For an instant the rat wriggles - it is dead as the bird rises.