SNOWY OWL NEAR OCEAN SHORES
            Duane Niatum
                p. 1991*
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sits on a stump in an abandoned farmer's field,
a castaway from an arctic tundra storm.
Beyond the dunes cattails toss and bend as snappy
as the surf, rushing and crashing down the jetty.

His head glances round; his eyes, a deeper yellow
than the winter sun, seem to spot a mouse
crawl from a mud hole to bare grass-patch.
When half an hour of wind and sleet passes and nothing
darts, a North Pole creature shows us how to last.

The wind ruffles his feathers from crown to claws
while he continues gazes at the salt-slick rain.
So when a double-rainbow arced the sky
we left him to his white refrain.


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* from _Drawings_of_the_Song_Animals_, 1991
** contributory thanks to Sam Droege **

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