POEM NOVEMBER 2024
Tag Archives: Poem
Great Blue Heron
He looked like an old man hunkered down
in a faded blue overcoat, his collar turned up,
shoulders hunched. He didn’t seem bothered
his bare pate. But then his narrow head rose
in a faded blue overcoat, his collar turned up,
shoulders hunched. He didn’t seem bothered
by the shallow water his feet were covered
by, nor the chill winter air blowing aroundhis bare pate. But then his narrow head rose
like a periscope, higher and higher — swiveled
in the direction of a hardly perceptible splash.
Slowly, he moved toward the sound on legs
as skinny as walking sticks, to the place where
dinner was served and eaten so fast, any cook
would wonder if he tasted it. It was enough,
however, to restore his quiet contemplations.
Hunger sated, he curled his long neck into its
warm collar, and stood as still as a painting
while the sun sank and the snow moon kept
rising like a white balloon over the darkening
lake, the stark tree branches, and a lone heron
blending, bit by bit, into the blue light of dusk.
Terri Kirby Erickson