Birds lacking teeth
will swallow stones,

grind them in their gizzard
until too smooth to do

work. They too gorge
on abundance;

we stuff it in our crop
for later digestion. 

Down by Beebe creek 
the vegetation was two

-faced, showing silver
as the wind thrashed 

it down. We followed
a swallow-tail through

a dappling of poplars,
so young they barely

resembled the trees
they will become.