Happy Meals

   Happy Meals  

  In the salmon-laden river
  Where the fish pause for a final rest
My eyes scan the water, eyeing the run’s best
       Where I see red flesh cadavers

        Rotting in sparkling sun
   Food for the circling osprey’s chicks
Carried to a treetop nest of straw and sticks
        Happy meals provided by a fish run

        From lofty aerie’s, swoop
     The graceful birds, talons like razors
  Grasp the dying fish, kill like deadly tasers
        Complete nature’s food chain loop

        Beneath the glassy pools
    Crazed by the upturned river gravel
  Row upon row of salmon roe unravel
        Bank deposits from downriver schools

        Tomorrow’s assured by death
      By carrion and flesh for birds and bears
  Blood and bones yield nature’s fertile shares
        One dies to live, one lives to die