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  • The Great Horned Owl
  • Clarence Major (bio)

He glides, descending to the forest floor—

his hard face like an African

mask, carved out of soft wood.

He glides, descending— (his face as wide

as his shoulders with big ears

jutting straight up like horns)—descending

to the forest floor where a mouse

is stuck in naked air. And the wing span

of the great night bird spreads, showing

his white plumage in this, his pale phase,

as he snatches the mouse, scattering dry leaves,

spreading again those great wings,

fanning his fluffy black and white tail

on the take-off

Clarence Major

Clarence Major, who has won awards for his poetry and fiction, recently published a novel, Dirty Bird Blues, and edited two anthologies, Calling the Wind: Twentieth-Century African-American Short Stories and The Garden Thrives: Twentieth-Century African-American Poetry. His books include Some Observations of a Stranger at Zuni in the Latter Part of the Century, Surfaces and Masks, Painted Turtle: Woman with Guitar, Fun & Games, and Swallow the Lake. He teaches at the University of California-Davis.

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