Snowy+Egret


 * Snowy Egret**

My neighbor’s boy has lifted his father’s shotgun and stolen Down to the backwaters of the Elizabeth And in the moon he’s blasted a snowy egret From the shallows it stalked for small fish.

Midnight. My wife wakes me. He’s in the backyard With a shovel so I go down half-drunk with pills That let me sleep to see what I can see and if it’s safe. The boy doesn’t hear me come across the dewy grass. He says through tears he has to bury it, He says his father will kill him And he digs until the hole is deep enough and gathers The egret carefully into his arms As if not to harm the blood-splattered wings Gleaming in the flashlight beam.

His man’s muscled shoulders Shake with the weight of what he can’t set right no matter what, But one last time he tries to stay a child, sobbing Please don’t tell ... He says he only meant to flush it from the shadows, He only meant to watch it fly But the shot spread too far Ripping into the white wings Spanned awkwardly for a moment Until it glided into brackish death.

I want to grab his shoulders, Shake the lies loose from his lips but he hurts enough, He burns with shame for what he’s done, With fear for his hard father’s Fists I’ve seen crash down on him for so much less. I don’t know what to do but hold him, if I let go he’ll fly to pieces before me. What a time we share, that can make a good boy steal away, Wiping out from the blue face of the pond What he hadn’t even known he loved, blasting Such beauty into nothing.

by Bruce Weigl