A pair of parti-coloured swifts
use the pontoon as a raft
to dive and shimmy-dip and bask,
catch gnats,
race golden butterflies.
Their russet cheeks and breasts,
dark masks,
shiny graphite swallowtails
and cyan satin theatre capes
evoke Venetian masquerades.
Observing this duet-vivace,
blue herons - three fates
masked in white -
settle on a mangrove limb,
clack their bills like castanets.
Oneiric intervals in space,
swifts, cerulean in flight;
workmen's laughter
drifts across the river
from a building site.
Cloudsongs echo cries of migrant
ibis from cold autumn heights.