Marine Band Radio

A cormorant caught an enormous fish—
Well, bigger than it’s pterodactyl head.
I thought the black neck twisting out of the water,
The flapping brown fins held tight in the beak,
Were a particularly lively piece of New York harbor trash
Until I saw the bird’s gleaming eye
Register grim resolution
To shift its prey in the lock of its jaws
To hold it just right, rear back, open wide
And gulp the fish down in three big bites.
Then the bird meandered on the whitecapped water
Neither diving nor winging away.
The fish, of course, was going nowhere.

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