Jenny Ward Angyal

Penance

Twenty-one eggs fly economy class from low-lying Midway Atoll to a mountainous island off the west coast of Mexico. A few months later, a fledgling albatross takes to the air on its own slender wings. It won’t set foot on land again for five or six years until it feels the urge to mate.  Does it sleep on the wing?  No one knows for sure. 

suspended 
between stars and sea
the curve 
of the Earth,
the long bones of time

An albatross soars on twelve-foot wings. It lives half a century and mates for life but lays only a single egg each year.  Remote ocean islands used to provide a safe haven for nesting—before ships brought rats, mice, and feral cats that feast on eggs and chicks. Long fishing lines ensnare the adult birds as they forage. Chicks gorge themselves on plastic.  And nestlings drown in the powerful storm surges of a warming planet. 

a great white bird
pursues my ship 
of dreams…
cradled in my hands
a single egg

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About the Author

 Jenny Ward Angyal’s tanka have appeared widely in journals and are published in her collection, moonlight on water (2016). She is tanka editor of Under the Basho.