Ode to an Expressway Egret
Given the darkness of these pandemic times, i hope you find some light in this anthology published by Palamedes Press. My essay, Ode to an Expressway Egret, was published in this 2019 collection containing work by 14 authors. My essay was inspired by a graceful egret I viewed on my evening commute.
“Just after Exit Four and before Motel Six I spied her, a dazzling long-legged beauty wading in a weedy makeshift pond along the expressway. Her white feathers were resplendent next to the brown mound of earth left by construction to create an overpass. Distracted by her beauty, I momentarily forgot about my own daughter’s safety, about the injustice we were inflicting on desperate families fleeing violence, and the nightmare of global warming that might well obliterate my and all children’s chances for life as we know it. Judging by her graceful L-shaped neck, she was mostly likely an egret. I had no idea if this charming bird were male or female, but I instinctively believed her to be female by the regal way she carried herself, as if she were balancing a book on her plumeless head.”