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Column 264

The Owl

Intro by Ted Kooser
04.11.2010

Wendy Vide­lock lives in west­ern Col­orado, where a per­son can stop to study what an owl has left behind with­out being run over by a taxi. 

The Owl

Beneath her nest,
a shrew's head,
a finch's beak
and the bones
of a quail attest

the owl devours
the hour,   
and disregards   
the rest.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.