Under Primaries

" Under Primaries "

by Suzán Jiván

Flight feathers
black, but white
under primaries
brown juveniles
along shorelines
around a yellow eye
large carcasses
tiny larvae
big cavities
hatching
through Sahara
waiting for scraps
shaggy ruff
dusky pink
bone-eating
revealing
underwings
raucous screams
nest linings
mammalian skin
and hair canting
side-to-side
feeding
on hares
and dik-diks
monitor lizards
drinking
preening
inconspicuously
hidden
heavy bellies
sub-desert
stick nests
at rest
wing edges
red defenses
graceful descents
shallow nests
semi-desert
watershed
empty steppes
snatched nestlings
livestock pens
compulsive theft
rivers edge
long crests
lapping wakes
seizing eyerings
dung beetles...