May Swenson(1913–1989)

Waterbird

Part otter, part snake, part bird the bird Anhinga,3

jalousie 0 wings, draped open, dry. When slack-shutterlike

hinged, the wind flips them shut. Her cry,

a slatted clatter, inflates her chin-

pouch; it's like a fish's swim-

bladder. Anhinga's body, otter-

furry, floats, under water-

mosses, neck a snake with white-

rimmed blue round roving eyes. Those long feet stilt-

paddle the only bird of the marsh that flies

submerged. Otter-

quick over bream 0 that hover in water-fish

shade, she feeds, finds fillets among the water-

weeds. Her beak, ferrule 0 of a folded blackmetal tip

umbrella, with neat thrust impales her prey.

She flaps up to dry on the crooked, look-

dead-limb of the Gumbo Limbo,4 her tan-

tipped wing fans spread, tail a shut fan dangled.