Cattle Egrets

Traveling down County Highway 207,

concrete cityscape had long given way

to the verdant countryside.

It was my first trip to the lake this year.

The two-lane road wove

through gentle wooded  hills

until a pasture came into view.

A healthy herd of angus

was scattered across the grassy hillside,

and some stood in the valley 

near the wood rail fence.

Where cattle grazed, a flock of egrets

had solemnly descended.

Each black cow

had her own snow-white egret.

This one stood by its unflappable companion,

proudly plumed like some primitive warrior

in full head dress,

while another lightly rode the massive shoulders

of its creature confidant.

There was a multitude in peaceful repast.

As cows chewed their cud,

birds feasted upon insects stirred

by beastly bovine steps.

 

In those brief moments driving

along the highway,

I felt a calm grounding

as I watched the quiet interplay –

the black and the white,

the earth-bound and the air-borne,

the large and the small,

the nimble and the pedantic –

as if body and spirit

could keep in step

for the rest of the journey.

- Charles Kinnaird