Vultures

Aaron and I sing a song when we see the black shadows of vultures riding waves of warm air overhead. They appear in silence and move with few to no wing beats as they scour the earth below.  The vultures meet in the sky, responding to an invitation of scent, one that you and I most likely will not notice.

Turkey Vulture Song

It's a turkey vulture meeting

go up in the sky

and fly around. 

It's a turkey vulture meeting

eating

carrion that's on the ground.  

I've also included an older poem by Mary Oliver about these creatures. It's pretty near to perfect, if a poem ever can be. Enjoy.  

VULTURES

By Mary Oliver

Like large dark

lazy

butterflies they sweep over

the glades looking

for death,

to eat it,

to make it vanish,

to make of it the miracle:

resurrection. No one

knows how many

they are who daily

minister so to the grassy

miles, no one

counts how many bodies

they discover

and descend to, demonstrating

each time the earth's

appetite, the unending

waterfalls of change.

No one,

moreover,

wants to ponder it,

how it will be

to feel the blood cool,

shapeliness dissolve.

Locked into

the blaze of our own bodies

we watch them

wheeling and drifting, we

honor them and we

loathe them,

however wise the doctrine,

however magnificent the cycles,

however ultimately sweet

the huddle of death to fuel

those powerful wings.