White plumes grace the shallows,
elegant, pristine,
the reflection stirring the surface.
Close together, these egrets
seem one bird. So close
they must be a pair, the promise
of summer. But miracles are brief.
A week from now, failing to see them,
we scare up the returning heron
and, as never before,
a second rises to join it.

Dennis Collier is a retired fiscal policy analyst and former newspaper reporter and editor. He has degrees in journalism and English, public policy, and religious studies, and lives with his wife Janice in Madison.