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Sunday, April 13, 2014

"Out on the Flats" by Leonard Nathan

For Matt, on his birthday.
1961 - 2004


Out on the flats, a heron still
as a hieroglyph carved
on the soft gray face of morning.

You asked, when I seemed far away,
what it meant but were gone
when I turned to you with an answer.

Nothing mysterious—hunger,
a taste for salt tides,
distance, and a gift of flight.



"Out on the Flats" by Leonard Nathan, from The Potato Eaters. © Orchises Press, 1998.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks, Jim. Beautiful pairing of photo and poem.
    Must be Lake Michigan.

    ReplyDelete