WAITING FOR _E._GULARIS_ Linda Pastan p. 1985 ================================= "An African heron was found on the northeast end of Nantucket Island . . ." news release "The sighting of the century . . ." Roger Tory Peterson Exile by accident he came against all instinct to this watery place, mistaking it perhaps as the explorers did for some new Orient. This morning, dreaming of the inexplicable I rise from sleep, smoothing the sheets behind me to match the water-smoothed sand silk under my bare feet. I walk past morning joggers who worship in pain the crucible of breath, past dune and marsh stockaded with eel grass to this pond, just as a breeze comes up like rumours of his appearance. Teenagers in bathing suits lounge here, fans waiting for their rock star _E._gularis_--even his name becomes an incantation. The pond is all surface this cloudy day, the dark side of a mirror where nothing shows until you stare enough as at those childhood puzzles-- how many faces can you find concealed here? And there moving towards us is the turtle's miniature face, and there the mask the wild duck wears, stitching a ruffle at the pond's far edge where now the Little Blue Herons curve their necks to question marks (why not me?) where in a semi-circle ornithologists wait to add another notch to their life lists, binoculars raised like pistols. ======== ** contributory thanks to Sam Droege ** ======== ========