Travellers in Common

The river calls as we unhitch our

sturdy bikes, clean from yesterday’s rain.

Hats and gloves no impediment to

feasts of flax and flurry of wild fowl.

We shift our weight, dealing with uneven

surfaces of grass and dry cinder.

With high handed wind shouldering behind

we partner the changing flow of soft-

edged water where heron, shag and

spoonbill get on from a chilled distance.

Plovers, stilts and dotterels thumb their

beaks, softening sunlit margins.

Some, here for short spans in shallows, stalk

nutrients, until next resting place.