We are filling the air with everything:
our piping calls, the feathers we
lose on our weary flight. See
how overhead cloud hides
us from one another,
as we herald the arrival of autumn. One thing
you must remember is that we
return from our northern nests always
together, while some just want
to stop off on the way south, others long to
stay for the winter. You will see
us all marching along the shore. What
you don’t see are the worms and shellfish, the food that is
beneath our webbed feet, hidden
in polluted mud and sand. By
the time we are gone, you will wonder what
that rush of travel-weary waders was, and we
will be off again, the last waders you may ever see.
Kim M. Russell, 8th October 2026
Mish is our host for this Thursday’s Open Link Night at the dVerse Poets Pub, and she has given us an optional mini-prompt featuring René Magritte, the Belgian surrealist artist and his famous painting, ‘Son of Man’.
I love Magritte and his depictions of familiar objects in unusual places, and I included one of his paintings in my Quadrille prompt in April 2018, ‘Don’t rain on my parade’ which you can read here.
I was interested in the quote from Magritte about ‘Son of Man’, which Mish shared with us, so when I read that the optional mini-prompt today is to write poems inspired by the painting or the quote, I thought I’d try a golden shovel from these words: “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”
love how the poem shows the reader everything from the ground up into the air but contrasts with beneath – the hidden element that sustains the travel-weary waders
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Thanks so much, Laura.
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Fine work, Kim. It’s sad how our sight so often interferes with our ability to see clearly, eh?
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Thank you, Ron!
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A beautiful poem. I love birds
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Thank you, Roberta.
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💛
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Oh I love the voice in this, the enticing first line and those hidden layers of a bird’s life. A wonderful use of Magritte’s quote.
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Thank you so much for your close reading and appreciation, Mish.
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I enjoyed this vivid scene you’ve painted, Kim. Birds are such great poetic inspiration. Lovely 🤍
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Thank you, Jennifer. ❤️
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I love this, written from the bird’s point of view. Clever. Really lovely and I just saw a huge flock of birds fly by my window on a rush of wing as if…..
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Thank you so much, Yvonne.
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It would be fun to witness the annual migration first hand. It shows good working together with a common purpose even though done by pure instinct. A lesson for mankind! Wonderful lines Kim!
Hank
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Thank you very much, Hank.
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Your poem begs the question: what do we see?
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So true, Melissa.
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This breaks my heart as I think of the polluted mud and sand. Hopefully, not the last waders you may ever see.
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We’re losing so many species and birds are amazing, they’ve been on this earth such a long time.
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That last line hits home.
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Thank you.
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You inhabit those weary waders so well – a pleasure to join in – Jae
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Thank you, Jae!
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Nice idea. I liked the golden shovel from the birds’ point of view.
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Birds are cool. I liked the poem a lot
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