WHOOPING CRANES

In 1941, fifteen,

from the fifteen hundred

a century before,

living in freedom,

flying their long migration

across the changed lands

from their northern

nesting grounds,

untouched

when everything

else has been transformed.

Fifteen,

out of fifteen hundred,

heirs to three million years

of separate evolution,

three million years

migration

and then,

teetering on the brink

of extinction,

open both

the great wide

future

of millions upon

millions of years

and the long silence

of time given

geological form,

the long silence

that embraced

their dinosaur forbears.

Fifteen then,

and out of fifteen

eight and a half hundred

now, wings

soaring.

03.08.-05.08,2026