all afternoon the
sea was a muddle of birds
black, spiky, long-necked
Cormorants by Mary Oliver as published in the collection, Thirst by Mary Oliver (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002).
All afternoon the sea was a muddle of birds
black and spiky,
long-necked, slippery.
Down they went
into the waters for the poor
blunt-headed silver
they live on, for a little while.
God, how did it ever come to you to
invent Time?
I dream at night
of the birds, of the beautiful, dark seas
they push through.
Did you know that shore birds have a shared home, the beach and because they have different length beaks, they are able to take part is something called resource partitioning which lets many different species live and eat happily on the exact same strip of shoreline.
God, when you invented time, where did you find the time to come up resource partitioning as well?
Discover more from No Haiku For You
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.