Pond Scene

Perching upon a branch
The great gray heron waits.
Water scurrying by
With schools of tiny fish
Who don't know it's above.

Flashes flutter beneath;
Silver silhouettes swim
Alongside little domes
That breach the surface line,
Raising curious heads
With colorful streaked sides—
Pond sliders peeking out.

Across the pond I see
A white party of birds.
In this wading group, one,
Skinny and statuesque,
Stands above all the rest.
A great white egret waits
As tiny ibises
Pick and poke through the grass;
And two diminutive
Snowy egrets play,
The one chasing his mate
Until she takes to flight,
Landing a couple feet
Away. He flies in suit,
Tracing upon the blue 
His little yellow pair
Of banana peel feet.

Overhead rose a cry
Like raspy guiro scrapes;
A long shadow appeared:
A great grey heron flies,
Attracting the branch-sat
One, engaging their wings
Toward the high treetops.
They circle in a pair
Once and a second time,
Then a third circuit make
Before they disappear
Within the woody heights.