featherspoem #1
behind as I swim the dawn chorus
calls feebee feebee pee-a-wee pee-a-wee
cheerup cheerily cheerup hey
sweetie hey sweetie sam
peabody peabody peabody all affirming
their right to these vermont woods
while nearby in addison county
whooping crane number three-o-nine
snowy plumage jet wing tips
red skullcap yellow eyes
legbands white and green on starboard
red and green on port radio transmitter
on back picks her way through a farmer’s field
dwarfing her friend a great blue heron
breathless birders peer through viewing scopes
do not disturb this disturbable bird
unperturbed for now if she doesn’t
find her way home soon joe duff
her chick-mother will come white crane-suited
in his white ultralite crane-plane to lure her
back to wisconsin’s necedah refuge
where family waits and maybe a mate
so that her hatchling if she has one
will increase the whooping cranes to
four-o-one they were once down to sixteen
all that splendor nearly lost
© Jacqueline Jackson 2005
