On the Edge
This morning on the Corran Esplanade
above the cresting tide
a pair of black guillemots sporting
summer plumage perch on the edge
of the crescent sea-walk, their bright
coral feet tucked discreetly
beneath the blackest of feathers.
Only white wing patches keep
them from disappearing into shadows.
I stop to admire these divers –
small circumpolar auks
called tysties by the Scots – and wonder
at their loss already begun
as temperatures soar
in the northern
hemisphere.
Kathryn MacDonald has published in literary journals in Canada, the U.S., Ireland, and England, as well as anthologies. Her poem “Duty / Deon” won the Arc Award of Awesomeness (January 2021). “Seduction” was entered in the Freefall Annual Poetry Contest and was published in Freefall (Fall 2020). She is the author of A Breeze You Whisper: Poems, and Calla & Édourd (fiction). For details, please see https://kathrynmacdonald.com.