Cattails caked with frost
softly camouflage first white heron
in early spring.
Light slices topmost layer of frost
where mountains, still dressed for winter,
gravely ponder dawn.
Spring fog filters through
this nearly-thawed marsh.
Leftover from last autumn,
fallen leaves, kind and brown,
insulate, fertilize new saplings.
Sun cuts through light mist,
melts remnants of snow.
Spring settles in with taste for green.
The heron is ready to fly, explore,
discover more
of slow river, new fish to try.
Marsh grass quivers in breeze.
Rising above doubts and dark roots,
wild heron takes flight into joyful heart of sky.
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Author Notes
This is free verse with just one random end rhyme of explore/more.
Thanks to willie for a stunning photo to access here.
Cache Valley is in the northern part of the American state of Utah, in Cache County. You can see shore birds in some random marshy areas in the western section of the town of Logan in Cache Valley. There is also a really nice bird refuge in the Tremonton area to the west of Cache Valley.
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