THE HUNTER

 Patience born of time afield
 Knowledge gained by long experience
 Stealth brought about from endless practice
     Garbed in dark to hide in shadows

             Little escapes his steely eyes
             as the hunter tracks his prey
     He   picks.......and   chooses
                                          at his leisure

Quarry ,often unsuspecting
        unaware of perhaps being passed over
        in favor of another mark
        whose end is
                                    sudden

         Matters not to hunter
           is prey aware of his presence
                                           
                                                  or not
                                 Same outcome
                             Same loss
                         Same sudden lurch between living
                                                      
                                                                                   and dead

The slow inexorable stalk
 the long stretches of silence
                                        and    waiting
                                        and watching
                                         and deciding

                                 Now ?    or    Later ?
                                   this one or that one ?

       Swift cold-blooded decisiveness
                           With inevitable result

I  am the quarry     Death  the hunter
                                                                and eventual victor

                                                                 But not today