Careful scrutiny

I'd wanted to write
about night herons
and their delight in the lowest tides
their thankless patience
their red eyes and startling cries in the gloom of night

or the careful scrutiny of a gull's eye
under the august sun
as the tide goes out
and sanderling plunder the wrack-line at my feet

instead there's the moon rising, lopsided and yellow
the promise of a little prince, enjoyed together
this deliberate probing of a heart's memory
and the shared revelation
of a whimbrel's decurved bill.