reflecting

One swallow skims the surface gobbling flies,
and his reflection rises to the bait.
His likeness and his image, hue and size;
Narcissus and his true-love strain to mate.
Another world, the twin to this, our own,
just one of many painted by Monet.
What strange Intelligence might call it "home"
Is more than 4-D mortal man can say.
Two worlds encounter at the mirror-plane
Or so 'twould seem, exchanging left for right
it took a Snell to lucidly explain
the symmetry of such reflected light.
String theorists insist on seven more
dimensions, but can't make clear what they're for.

aleatory

The swallows jeer; the kestrel barely shrugs
each perfect in its own right as a gem.
Both masters on the wing, one lives on bugs
the other's better armed, and dines on them.
the Class of avians is broad and rich,
from hummingbirds to ponderous emu.
Exquisitely, each fits its proper niche
to masterfully thrive at what they do.
No Telos is implicit in design;
a hundred million years grinds smooth what's rough.
It's only us projecting a Divine
where mindless algorithms are enough.
High-aspect wings evolved in these two, twice.
And Darwin's God achieved it, casting dice.

top angler

Unflapping, as if painted on the sky,
her pinions balanced on the April breeze
no meal escapes her glitt'ring yellow eye
who perches on the air, as if in trees.
The osprey stoops, our breaths and heartbeats pause
she exits dreamtime, very much awake.
A trout now thrashes dumbly in her claws
that thought itself the big fish in this lake.
The timeless drama, predator and prey
the plumpest sacrifice the waters give
will feed her nestlings for another day
unless fish die, their predators can't live.
To mourn this death too much would be absurd;
my sympathy's entirely with the bird.

score!

unflapping, crucified against the sky
her pinions balanced on the April breeze
no quarry can escape her  scanning eyes
who perches on the air, as if in trees
the osprey stoops, our breaths and heartbeats pause
she exits dreamtime, very much awake
a trout now thrashes dumbly in her claws
that thought itself the big fish in this lake
the timeless drama, predator and prey
the plumpest sacrifice the waters give
will feed her nestlings for another day
unless fish die, what piscivores could live
to mourn this death too much would be absurd
my sympathy's entirely with the bird