Chile, Winter 2017

by Joan Hofmann

In the Patagonia fiords
I looked but didn't find
the frigate-bird,
his red chest pouch
inflated. Girls like red
balloons, and I imagine
one wanting one enough
to join him as he gyrates
silly near his nest. Here,
in the Atacama Desert
Andean flamingoes
stand knee to knee,
pink in altiplano salt flats.
Unlike grouped males
strutting back and forth,
they're singular now
and just a few necks jerk
black beaks to the sky--
like seeds flecked airborn
in reckless release
or ebony notes across
a music score,
the individual tenors
scatter the landscape.