Let Linger

- after Linda Gregg


Let osprey return to river.
        Let avocets with their upturned bills.
Let diablotín masquerade as haunters 
               in the dark.
Let yellowlegs fish for ghost 
        crabs, and willets race along the shore. 
Let gannets weave their nests like aunts
               in widows' caps.
There is time yet and it is what we inhabit,
        whether it colors the sky purple 
or mends the broken crags with gold.
               Let the small grasses sleep
at the edge of the road and not fear
        the eye of the storm.