As kids we saw
hundreds of brown pelicans
on pilings
asleep like students
at a lecture.
Wading through Crystal Springs,
we found fossils:
shark’s teeth,
the stapes of prehistoric horses,
leg bones of birds.
We would often row out
to the middle of a lake,
slip over the boat
–and swim, sliding green
and dark under the waters
like leviathans….
sometimes surprising
an egret as we surfaced.
The most beautiful creatures
of my childhood
were the birds:
Bachman’s warblers—
with their yellow vests
and olive green coats
snowy white ibises—
with their clattering
and throaty murmurings
the blue herons—
with their robust squawking
the dusky seaside sparrow…
Can I still mimic its whistle,
still impersonate
the Bachman’s zips and zeeps?
How did they go?
[Editor’s note: The background photo is possibly the last one taken of the Bachman’s Warbler in 1988, before it went extinct.]
