A Poem: Lesser Egrets

In a vision, the word egret appears

instead of cygnet

as egrets are not gray in the wilderness.

One looks to her brothers and sisters—

you fools

the light is changing. Soon

the shortening days will call you

elsewhere. Long light will send you north again.

We are governed more by these cycles

than names and reveries of flight.

This article appears in January 2013.