The Raiding Party

Four and twenty little black cormorants —
I make the count as they paddle and dive
in a splashing arc across the river,
bring the energy of conquest to
the business of breakfast. Success comes in flashes,
a second metallic beak above necks
turned serpentine. Scouting flights enhance
the sense of drama: white puffs dot the surface,
full lift-off, touchdown's long splutter.
Pirates in seagull form attend the scene
with cut-throat cries, white shadowing black,
feasting at one remove… All these readers
of smooth-lipped welts, provocative tremors,
above mullet threading in schools upstream.