Ode to the Brown Pelican

Ode to the Brown Pelican

 

Given That Pelicans Have Flown in Perfect Formation

For the Last Thirty Million Years, I have Concluded,

That the Almighty Was Way Ahead of His Time

In Terms of Aeronautical Aesthetics, Etc.

 

Then God Said, “Let the Waters Abound

With an Abundance of Living Creatures,

And Let the Birds Fly Above the Earth

Across the Face of the Heavens

 

Genesis 1:20

 

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Creation of a neophyte

That in a line will fly

 

So nearly on

The ocean’s edge

Beneath an edgeless sky,

 

You are a relic in the mist

That shrouds all giant wings,

 

A study in the awkward form

Exaggeration brings

Unto first efforts,

Done in love,

 

Before they are revised

 

And tempered in

The just repeal 

 

 

That second thoughts advise

 

Your face is dull to look upon,

Your feathers, brown and coarse

 

You are the standard of a dream

That marries hawk and horse

 

But though you are

A learner’s work,

The learner was

 

A god,

 

And when you glide

Above the main,

 

I hear my heart applaud

 

What thing on Earth

Surpasses you

 

In purpose

 

Or design,

 

When you are

Gracing life itself,

Just flying in a line![1]

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[1] According to Wikipedia, the oldest known pelican fossil was found in Early Oligocene deposits at the Luberon in southeastern France and is remarkably similar to modern forms. Its beak is almost complete and morphologically identical to its modern-day descendants. Pelicans fly in a line because during flight, an updraft is created by the “upstroke of one bird's wing,” and the following bird can “take advantage of this wingtip vortex” to save a significant amount of energy.