Don’t make an eagle mad,
The last thing one should do.
She has an awesome beak
And awesome talons too.

She is a peaceful bird
Until her nest is breached.
Then she is quick to strike
‘Fore safety can be reached.

The enemy dispatched,
The nest which once stood high
Will quickly be rebuilt;
A beacon in the sky.

The eagle will remain
A symbol of the best.
Her vigilance intensified
For safety of her nest.

And those who once had dared
Are sorry that they had.
The lesson that they learned;
Don’t make an eagle mad.

The day after the attack on our nation, on 9/11, I got a call from the secretary of my writer’s guild asking me if I would write a poem about the tragedy for our newsletter. It only took me about ten minutes to do so. It just all seemed to fall in place. I wrote several other poems about patriotism but this will be the only one that I will include in The Fork.