LONE BIRD

In February 1966,  flood waters north of Ma’an, in Jordan, brought down into the Hasa Valley near Petra a single dying specimen of the species called Struthio Camelus Syriacus -the ostrich or, as the Chinese call it, the Camel Bird of Arabia. Since no ostriches had been seen on the Arabian Peninsula since 1941, the unexpected appearance of even one specimen gave hope to some optimists that these ostriches – which once roamed freely through Arabia—were not extinct but in hiding. MORE [Aramco World Magazine]

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LONE BIRD

by

Jamie Dedes

nests raided

fellows slaughtered

webbed walk a bit slower

beaked breathing a bit harder

feathers thinning, damp

eyes clouded

drifting on life’s waters

ancient memories locked in cells as

wispy dreams, cloudy visions

unpredicted pleasures, comforts

a woody bush still green

a flourish of flower that dances

lonely shelter, secluded

some food, some water, some young

like the bush, she survives

like the flower, she dances

like the seawater that pours from the clouds

she returns from crisis

life goes on

endurance is its own reward

lone bird lives

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Photo credit ~ Ann Cervova, Public Domain Pictures.net.