Majestically the heavy wood grouse rise

With wings like swords that slash the forest skies.

A pigeon homes to the airy wilderness.

A raven gleams with an airplane’s steely gloss.

What’s earth to them? A lake of dark and night.

Above that wave, their ports are kept in light.

A feather let fall from a grooming beak

Floats toward the deep lake bottoms for a week,

But on the way, it brushes someone’s face

With greetings from a free, high, shining place.