Bitterns

Posted by Susy in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Bitterns

Lane County Audubon Society has published my poem, Bitterns, in the November issue of their newsletter, The QuailBitterns won a 3rd place honorable mention in the Oregon Poetry Association fall contest this year.

Bitterns

Bitterns look as if they could have flown

in the days of dinosaurs,

flown with pterodactyls, and

now just pop forward to our time

for a brief visit now and then.

They are an elusive bird of the marshes,

more likely to stand still

as a statue, when discovered, than to fly.

Immobile, bill raised toward the sky,

their stocky, brown-striped figure blends into the grasses.

Flying, with short legs stretched out behind

and head stretched forward,

their throat pouch seems too large for their size.

Hunters of amphibians, insects, and fish,

bitterns have a call that sounds

somewhat like a water pump–

whoosh, bloop, whoosh.

 

I’d like to learn their secret of blending

into their surroundings when stressed

instead of instantly reacting;

to learn how to hold very still and

stretch one’s neck toward the sky.
“I’m not here,” my body would say,

“Go away.”

 

 

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