TheBanyanTree: great blue heron

[Mike Pingleton]

violets muddy the edges of sunset
as the heron rows home against
the deeping tide of night,
lethal head in level flight after
a long day looking down.
under the bowsprit beak
and the nile-curved neck
glides the jutting prow
of the bird's breast, now
a vessel for the souls
of the day's new dead -
the snapped fly,
the hawked rabbit
trodden toads and
heron-speared frogs,
carried back into the dark from
where all things come.  witness
your some-day ascension, the
wingbeats in embered silhouette,
tired reedy legs trailing astern
as the wheel turns and sun
burns into sea.