Aloft upon some distant shore The seabird sets her wings to soar The salt sea tang of crested breeze Or howling gale of winters freeze, Through oceans, mountainous or not Or sea Sargasso flat and hot, In dancing wavelets sparkling clear Where hunted mackerel school in fear, Where natives in their dugout boats Caste out their nets and balsa floats,
That tiny bird will soar adrift Negotiating each wind shift. One wonders how a thing so small Can fly against the wind at all; But sweep she does and plunge and veer In gracious symmetry to steer Across the oceans vastness too, To land right there, right next to you. In squawking lightness, dancing swings Sea bird alights ….and folds her wings.