Once in Australia
we saw a flock of white cockatoos
feeding in a fallow field.
The yellow in their crests
rose like a signal.
Then they all lifted,
and like so many sharp needles,
they stitched air currents with their wings
up and down, parallel to the field.
Back again.
What a fortune in silver!
The shimmering,
billowy,
dusk-damasked fabric
they created.
(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Publishing Society
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