Kinship

Flamingoes off the Sitra Causeway in Tubli Bay, Nabih Saleh, Bahrain

The winters pass looking for flamingo pink;

at the pulsing lights on the skin of the bay;

the runners on track, their devices gleaming,

the weekend traffic clogs the six-lane causeway.

Many will come to spot the flamingos

and watch for the shimmer of sodium lights

the peak traffic’s slow, but it comes and goes

and birds are still lost in protected sites.

From Tubli and Arad to the Bay of Bengal

in circles and loops of strange radii

again and again to the sounds of birdcalls,

to the flamingo pink, with a pink rimmed eye.

The kinship of migrants, a kinship of pink,

the kinship of all transient, fragile things.

Unstarry night over Arad Bay. Actually, it was a full moon y'day.