The Sandpiper [2] (Italian Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after Elizabeth Bishop)

The roaring thunder of the coming wave and the trembling
of the sand beneath its tiny feet lets it run with more speed
while the beach hisses with water coming sheet upon sheet
and that sandpiper is a brave running small thing

that builds its whole existence around water coming and going
and when the ocean drains it does for moments remain for its need
to scan and to pick up the morsels on which it does feed,
it focuses with obsession while its world is constantly changing

while the beach for a minute moment is sunny and clear
or filled with drops and mist of the next crunching wave
and millions of pebbles in different colours it does see
before it runs again without any kind of fear
before the water rushes out and for something it does crave
as if this is the only way in life for it to be.

[Reference: 'Sandpiper' by Elizabeth Bishop.]

© Gert Strydom