An osprey nest on a chimney near the Sanibel Island lighthouse. Florida. Paul Goldfinger photo. Feb. 2020 © Click image to enlarge the bird.
Osprey at the Tropicana Coop in Ft. Myers. 2018 © Paul Goldfinger photo.
Osprey
By George Held.
Osprey, you can see by the dawn’s
Early light
A fish ‘neath the finish of the bay
In your flight
As you circle and soar or you stall
Like a kite,
Ever ready to dive on your prey
When in sight;
Then you drop like a plummet until
You alight
On the brine with your talons outstretched
And they bite
Into scales of that silvery bass, lifting it clear
Of the bight
Of the bay with your ten-horse wings to retake
The sun’s light
And you land on your platform to tend to your nestling’s
End of night
Hunger, tearing the bass with your terrible beak
Into bite-
Sized gobbets for your fledgling to gorge on, its break-
Fast birthright
As your scion, O Osprey, you long-winged king
Of the heights.
This poem is from George Held’s first collection, Winged (1995.)
K.D. LANG
“Skylark.”