dailies

I woke baroque and unafraid
                   reginald shepherd

the mexican free-tail bat

separated from the colony

under the yolo causeway

dipped overhead

and dropped into the watery rice field

we saw it swimming for the berm

a little wake

pin-prick of dark on a darkening night

we thought it dead when it landed

motor running and it not moving

we wrapped our hands in plastic

to touch

it burst into flight