Thrilling Animal Rescue at Berkeley Public Library

That's right your Flaneur was there

 

 I was the only one who saw him fly in,

In my peripheral vision,

The rest were preoccupied with internet trivia

 I summoned the librarian

Asked them to call 

in an animal rescue professional

 This led to a sideshow

 Librarians assembling with other

Lookie-loos with phone cameras

 

 But the people made him a bit frantic

He would repeatedly fly

against the window

His stress began to stress me out

I bid people to stay away
And cooed to him,
"cool...cool...be cool, baby"
He paid attention too

 He wanted to resume being free

And would calm down 

when the people withdrew

After one old Chinese guy

Pretended to not understand anything

And use the printer anyway

The staff put up police tape

I spoke again to the first librarian

She told me the hawk

Was seen flying in the front door 

after a pigeon

I said it was part of the general

Over-the-topness of Spring

 Then the guy showed up with 

With a large black hoop net

He had a topknot and beard

and a municipal uniform on

He looked out-doorsy

and at-home with animals
Moving with slow deliberation
like an animatronic teddy-bear

There it is

 There's the hawk in his net

The black fabric immediately subdues,

He put on heavy cowhide gloves

Perhaps he put a hood on the bird

It struggled not in the least

As the wrangler walked off, 

He didn't even need help with his net

 My surveillance camera captures him

Leaving the building with the raptor

 When he reached the edge of this glass roof

He set the hawk free into the welcoming sky

And off he went

All in a day's work

No big deal

People cheered and applauded him

When he first caught the hawk

Not too much applause, said I, 

Not to burden the bird,

Our quiet hero of the day

15 March 2016