by Marianne Moore

    Although the aepyornis

    or roc that lived in Madagascar， and

    the moa are extinct，

    the camel-sparrow， linked

    with them in size——the large sparrow

    Xenophon saw walking by a stream——was and is

    a symbol of justice.

    This bird watches his chicks with

    a maternal¹ concentration-and he's

    been mothering the eggs

    at night six weeks——his legs

    their only weapon of defense².

    He is swifter than a horse； he has a foot hard

    as a hoof³； the leopard⁴

    is not more suspicious.  How

    could he， prized for plumes⁶ and eggs and young

    used even as a riding-beast， respect men

    hiding actor-like in ostrich⁷ skins， with the right hand

    making the neck move as if alive

    and from a bag the left hand strewing⁸ grain， that ostriches⁹

    might be decoyed and killed！  Yes， this is he

    whose plume⁵ was anciently

    the plume of justice； he

    whose comic duckling head on its

    great neck revolves¹⁰ with compass-needle nervousness

    when he stands guard，

    in S-like foragings as he is

    preening¹¹ the down on his leaden-skinned back.

    The egg piously¹² shown

    as Leda's very own

    from which Castor and Pollux hatched，

    was an ostrich-egg.  And what could have been more fit

    for the Chinese lawn it

    grazed on as a gift to an

    emperor who admired strange birds， than this

    one， who builds his mud-made

    nest in dust yet will wade¹³

    in lake or sea till only the head shows.

    Six hundred ostrich-brains served

    at one banquet， the ostrich-plume-tipped tent

    and desert spear， jewel-

    gorgeous ugly egg-shell

    goblets¹⁴， eight pairs of ostriches

    in harness， dramatize a meaning

    always missed by the externalist.

    The power of the visible

    is the invisible； as even where

    no tree of freedom grows，

    so-called brute¹⁵ courage knows.

    Heroism¹⁶ is exhausting， yet

    it contradicts a greed that did not wisely spare

    the harmless solitaire

    or great auk in its grandeur¹⁷；

    unsolicitude having swallowed up

    all giant birds but an alert gargantuan¹⁸

    little-winged， magnificently speedy running-bird.

    This one remaining rebel

    is the sparrow-camel.

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