The Hand-Carved Loon
And there are
Two birds
In this poem
A loon
Hand-carved
From balsa
And a snakebird
On the tide
Of the river
The oily head
Of a water bird
Cuts surface
And glides
Along by
Tarred wooden
Racks
Ideograms
Oyster farms
Low on the tide
Lower than
The hand-carved
Loon it looks
Hardly buoyant
A bird
From two
Worlds it knows
The murk
On the bottom
And waves
Crinkled by sun
It swims
As well
As a black trevally
Sleek and fast
A challenge to
Handcrafted birds
To all things made up
Source: Poetry (December 2017)