MELISSA THORNE

[Albatross] Still Waters

new horizons brush against
flat water, a boundless calm

bird silhouettes contain
a waiting 

there is movement
in time, pause 
in shale rock, threat
in an absent sun 
a haze drenched shoreline

still
the sea birds preen, coat beak in oil
waterproof feathers into sheen

as they sense 
incoming clouds, the pull
of earth’s magnetic field

urging them
to slip into open sky

return to nested home
let barren rock 
cradle new yolk