Frigate Birds

by tfawcus

I watch the frigates wheel and gyre,
aloft upon a broad-winged bow;
they sideslip on the doldrum air

while plankton swirls a mile below.
When predators give chase and streak
beneath the phosphorescent glow,

these well-fletched arrows, black and sleek,
begin their meteoric dive
with sanguine throat and billhook beak.

The flying fish that tuna drive
break through a surface laced with pearl,
like silver bullets as they strive,

in vain, to beat the savage swirl
of vicious beaks when wings unfurl.

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Recognized

#445
2020

Terza rima is a rhyme scheme that uses tercets and an interlocking pattern of rhymes, diagrammed as aba bcb cdc ded and so on. Traditionally, it ends with a rhyming couplet that rhymes with the second line of the penultimate stanza.

Frigatebirds in flight in the Galapagos Islands. Photo: Frans Lanting/National Geographic Creative

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A poem in Terza Rima

Frigate Birds

by tfawcus

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