Today's poem is by Irena Praitis

Late Capitalism
        The populations of other seabirds are declining while the white pelican population is
        growing.
                        —BBC Planet Earth

        This American system of ours, call it Americanism call it capitalism, call it what you will, gives each
        and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it.
                        —Al Capone

What a nightmare
for the gannets—
food scarce,
both parents working
to feed the chicks—
leaving them
unprotected—
flying far
out of sight
or sound contact.

The pelicans arrow
in, knowing
which gannet chicks
nest unprotected.
They stroll through aisles,
shopping carefully
for the best,
scooping them
almost gently
into their beaks,
pouches bulging
and kicking with prey,
flying home,
their baskets full,
regurgitating
partially digested,
but still alive
gannets, immediately
set upon by pelican chicks.

Over the colony,
two gannets circle and call.
Nothing answers.

The pelicans
step back, watching
power grow
in their young
their populations booming,
as they feed their children
the children
of others.

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Copyright © 2024 Irena Praitis All rights reserved
from Cage of Bones
Red Mountain Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission