The grace of a crane in flight
the bend of its wings
the effortless swoop of its limbs
over motionless water.

The landing. The stillness
the effortless stillness
the beat of the heart
beneath a paper-white sky.

Evanescence
a snapshot in time.
The crane spreads its wings
and takes to the skies.

And soars invisible towards
the lightning-white sun.
Icarus
Ganymede
borne from above.

The crane
touches down.

The crane
stirs the water.

The crane
fills the air with throaty
song.

The crane
by the rail station
stands in the gutter
its feathers drenched
in oil.

Notes on the poem

This poem was inspired by a video I saw of a crane taking flight, as well as an egret I saw near the train station in Winchester, MA. The egret was standing in dirty water and looked pretty downtrodden. This made me sad, but I didn’t have the chance to touch on it until I wrote this poem and realized that the last stanza about the sad, oily bird made a perfect counterpoint to the earlier sections about the crane’s beauty. I find it sad that human activity has worsened the environment for many species, including most birds.

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