Three Cranes

I drove mother home the back way that day.

Connected roads that wind their way

past pastures and country, large

open fields that students call watershed.

Winter began to dwindle that day,

and start losing it’s heavy, cold weight,

made way for the springtime twilight.

As I made the last left turn onto Bell road

we continued our discussion.

I subconsciously slow down the car.

A sheep farm sits there on Bell road

where the smell of onion

permeates the hot summer air every year,

when the sheep are left outside to graze

on the piles of the rotten vegetable.

We both look to the yard

where the sheep graze, even now,

and their tan wool is camouflage

as my eyes jump into the next block

of green green spring grass.

Three white bodies

stand equally apart from each other,

white like bright teeth,

in an otherwise toothless mouth,

each on one leg apiece.

Three egrets–

though there are more likely to have been cranes,

with long thin necks

holding up impossibly heavy beaks,

stretched higher to watch us

slowly passing to watch them.

Nearly stopped on the curvy road

in front of the sheep farm,

I took the photo in my mind,

knowing the creatures would be gone

upon my next return, surely

they’ll have continued their flight,

and perhaps grace another farmers yard

with their awful beauty.