Against the haze motionless wings
gently curved and crenate at the tip
the body solitary dark
joined the mountains and the horizon
as far as the eye could see
In the vastness
it turned and banked
caught by an unseen force
negotiated the currents
master of the wind
No compromise
with time or space
it stayed aloft for an eternity
coned in the rays of
the absolute
The distance between us grows
and in the distance between us
in the waning light that
surrounds me now
emptiness
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Jefferson's Garden, Monticello, Virginia
5:30 p.m. Sunday 26 July 1981