Shawn L. Bird

Each year a goose takes roost in

the osprey nest platform above the mill.

I suppose penthouse accommodations entice.

The view is lovely there,

and surely she feels superior to her kin

nesting waterfront (though their

recreational opportunities are greater).

Each year, after a month of goose occupancy,

the ospreys return.

I do not know the depth of the tragedy.

Do the evicted geese simply suffer homelessness,

or do they endure the grief of infanticide, as well?

Sometimes our lofty aspirations

are our undoing.

Our hubris is our hamartia,

but each year, in early spring, there’s a goose

in the osprey nest.

.

.

.

.

Remember your Shakespeare lessons?  Hamartia is the ‘fatal flaw’ of your personality that leads to your downfall (most commonly in literary tragedies).  Hubris is an excess of pride.