Heron

All wings and legs,
you take your stilted stance
atop a branch
that seems too thin
to bear your weight
yet there you stand
in search of fish.

It’s only when you fly
your beauty is revealed.
You glide on air
like a skull on a lake–
legs trailing behind like oars.

 
– poem by Ed Meek

My most recent book of poems is Spy Pond. I’ve had poems in The Sun, Plume and The Paris Review.