2000/roost

COMING IN TO ROOST

I seem to feel the need
to write all nature down,
in case it does not survive.
So my grandchildren can hold
my photo of the avocet
and read what it was like
to find one on your walk.
I should, no doubt, record their songs,
collect their feathers as I sometimes do.
How else could you explain
the throaty cormorant,
his wings spread open to the sun,
the glistening white of the cattle egrets
coming in to roost.

1/28/00