Australasian Darters

These water birds flew out from the minds

Of fishermen and became fishing peons

Wealthy sailors watched as darters emerged again

To spread drenched wings in the sun

And marked them as emblems for spinnakers

Painters and ornithologists studied darters

Until they became black-feathered arrows

That pierced the souls of their creators

These birds rode surf of bitter laughter

And wiped out on a zoo’s concrete Key Largo

To imitate darters lovers ripped off their clothes

And plunged into the swiftness of estuaries

Down the water column they entered brackish hell

Their hair transformed to iridescent plumage

Ruffled by memories of earth’s human atmosphere

We can experience the lives of these feathered beings

By flexing our particular despairs each morning

At evening we take in the news as best we can

On late nights we gaze at dead bodies of water

And almost perceive those wet wings working the tide