For an Anniversary, By Adrienne Rich

The wing of the osprey lifted

over the nest on Tomales Bay

into fog and difficult gust

raking treetops from Inverness Ridge on over

The left wing shouldered into protective

gesture the left wing we thought broken

and the young beneath in the windy nest

creaking there in their hunger

and the tides beseeching, besieging

the bay in its ruined languor

[1996]

From “Midnight Salvage” by Adrienne Rich (W.W. Norton: 76 pp., $22)