Birding at the Potholes<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Red epaulets flash on marsh grass,
\ndraw our scopes from familiar fields of view,
\nthe hunt for something to lift us
\nfrom our narrowed focus. We search<\/p>\n
for cranes, whose stilt legs barely
\ncarry them, whose wings loft them
\ngraceless – a run, stumble, flap – before air
\nbecomes substance that will bear them.<\/p>\n
Our son follows, crane-legged, iPod-eared.
\nHe doesn\u2019t hear the calls that pull us forward,
\ndoesn\u2019t see the meadowlark, bibbed and shining,
\nthe porcelain painted puff of chucking quail.<\/p>\n
His footprints are as big as ours, but
\nhe won\u2019t fill them, his head bowed, back bent
\nto minutiae: ants, scat, a feathered sign of struggle,
\nthe treasure of pebble and spent shotgun shell.<\/p>\n
He has no interest in our quest; the present
\nand the past are all right there
\nunder his feet, no need to scan the sky
\nfor cranes, already gone.<\/p>\n
“Birding at the Potholes” previously appeared in The Raven Chronicles<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and San Pedro River Review.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cynthia Neely<\/a> is the 2011 winner of the Hazel Lipa Prize for Poetry<\/em> with her chapbook \u201cBroken Water\u201d, published by Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment<\/em>.<\/a> Her poems appear or are forthcoming in, among others, Bellevue Literary Review<\/em> (Honorable Mention \u2013 Marica and Jan Vilcek Poetry Prize, 2011), Crab Creek Review, Floating Bridge Review, <\/em>and Raven Chronicles, <\/em>and are included in several sonnet anthologies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Birding at the Potholes Red epaulets flash on marsh grass, draw our scopes from familiar fields of view, the hunt for something to lift us from our narrowed focus. We search for cranes, whose stilt legs barely carry them, … Continue reading