Project Wind Seine, Cape May Poem by Anne Higgins

Project Wind Seine, Cape May


Barbara, in the first dim arrival
Of the Alzheimers,
Trods clumsily along
Beside me
To the naturalists’
Station.

He frees the warbler from the net,
Weighs it, checks how much fat
protects the tiny body,
by blowing on the feathers,
And looking at the skin.

Then he hands Barbara
the Magnolia warbler.
He puts this wonder of wind-caught
Gold
Caught on its way South,
in her amazed hand.

She holds the bird briefly, then
opens palm,
and it flies on
to its home in
the rainforest.