Reversal of Fortune

By Juliana Harris

We live in town now

A friend asks

Don’t you miss your house?

But it’s not the house I miss

I miss the shriek and swoop of gulls

And the triumphant rise of an osprey

Silvery prey gripped in its yellow talons

I miss the row of snowy egrets

Forming a one-legged chorus line in the marsh

While a great blue heron searches for a favorite rock

I miss the winter sunset

Glowing peachy gold and frigid blue

Above the black lace of barren trees

I miss the bleak grandeur of a night sky

Bedizened with stars and graced by an occasional comet

But :

We live in town now.