His cloak of darkest feathers dramatize
a charnel aspect, that seeks out the dead,
through Vulture's hellish keen red sunken eyes,
on skeletal formed feather-naked head.
A Vulture's lot.
He'll sit up high, observing life all day,
for any mishaps of a fatal sort,
or soar like Eagle's famous flight forte
in circular carrion searching sport.
As oft' as not.
With beak attuned to death and all decay,
He'll keep the landscape clean of gross debris.
His countenance presents a foul display.
Without his nature, where would we soon be?
In stinkin' rot.
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Author Notes
Along the Mississippi River, high up on a electrical powerline tower, I spotted a large group of Vultures roosting up there. They are large, and in flight, are often mistaken for Eagles, due to the way they soar. I captured this image of one, although the sun was directly behind it, making most shots a silhouette. They are ugly up close. Their naked heads almost look like skulls. But they do perform a valuable service in nature, as the clean up crew.
I called this format a Cat-a-strophe.
A Cat-a- astrrophe, as first reviewed in I Am Cat's lovely poem titled, "In Martha's Vineyard", (July 4th, 2016). It is a play on the word "catastrophe". Of course Cat because the from was created by our own Catherine Ginn. A "Strophe" is actually a poetic term that is also know as a "Volta" or turn. The format consists of any number of Quatrains, followed by a single line, which is written in iambic pentameter. It is written with a rhyme scheme of:
abab, c, dede, c, fgfg, c, hihi, c (and so on).
After each quatrain is a four syllable line which rhymes with all the other single lines (c rhyme).
I dubbed the style of this poem, a 'Cat-a-strophe', however the creator herself has not acknowledged nor endorsed the name. Any negative feedback concerning the name should be directed at me, not her. Dean Kuch dubbed this form a "Cat-o-tronic. I quess Cat will decide.
This photograph was taken by the author himself on July 2, 2016.
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