Rachael Boast: Sandpipers

How easy it is to imitate
the sandpipers,
their breasts the same colour 

as the breaking waves –

so you'll not see
how I've done this,
but consider it the outcome
of my being off-set
against the same mirrored cuff
of the North Sea
that belongs to you,

but cannot belong to me –

it all happens so quickly,
and to watch these creatures
who without consciousness of self
inhabit eternity, is as closely

aligned as we'll ever be –

so when I've left, remember me
by how light they are

on their legs –

how they look at you
with a tilted head.


From Sidereal (2011). The poet looks at herself (mirrored in the sea) and wants to coexist in both human and animal consciousness. Which is a very common thread in animal poems that are actually about the human observers.