H is for Hawk

by Helen Macdonald

Have you ever seen a hawk catch a bird in your back garden? I’ve not, but I know it’s happened. I’ve found evidence.

yes - happened in my back garden

maybe you’ve glanced out of the window and seen there, on the lawn, a bloody great hawk murdering a pigeon,

exactly this. Murdered and ate a pigeon

The kind of madness I had was different. It was quiet, and very, very dangerous.

It was a madness designed to keep me sane.

I read my horoscope and believed it. Auguries. Huge bouts of déjà vu. Coincidences. Memories of things that hadn’t happened yet.

I’d always felt a part of me was missing; an old, simple absence.