Leptoptilos Part Two: Lesser Adjutant

Stillness, silence

In the shaded marsh

She stands motionless

Ice-lacquered eyes

Searching through

Water’s surface

Where I hide

Dark and smooth

Her plumage lies

‘Round thin legs

No ripples shiver

No silt shifts

Under webbed toes

Nothing moves

Nothing moves

No thing, no thing, no�"

 

Thing moves!  I am revealed!

Amphibious slick

Shadow darting

Dark below her

She strikes!

The surface breaks

Her dagger beak

Incises the sediment

Finds my quick wriggling

I with a twitch resist

Her throaty abyss

Slide slide

Then move no more