Eagle Tree

“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well . . .” The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

At the corner near the one-room schoolhouse, across from the bare cornfield and up the lane from the cemetery, stands the tallest tree in the area. Some days on the 8-mile drive to town, we can see eagles on its highest branches. This time, we were alerted by a battalion of buzzards squabbling over carrion in the ditch. Two golden eagles and two bald eagles seemed to watch disdainfully from their superior height.
I forget the charm of the countryside when one rainy day follows another, forming canals in the fields, or when I can’t see the sunset for the trees. Then I look up and remember. One of those trees shelters eagles.

We gaze at eagles
on the tallest tree, forget
quarreling buzzards

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Inspired by dVerse

Waiting for the gondola