Harbingers

by Margaret Gillies Brown

First Published in 'The Lie of the Land' 2004

 


The room is rinsed by moonlight
February nearly gone -
From beyond the window,
in the bright darkness,
the harbingers of change,
Oyster Catchers up from
the mussel 'n' cockle shore
surveying their springtime quarters.
Inspecting, in the half-dark,
height of the winter wheat,
mapping out territories
for this year's important nests.

Their wild piping, bubbling breakwater,
bringing the sea inland,
fills the midnight air.
I turn to sleep
as the land outside my window
revolves to spring...

without need of my assistance.