Angel Wings, Great White Egrets
Dawn breaks. Kiwanis Park is empty save for one station wagon filled with belongings. We park. The homeless man behind the wheel starts his engine and pulls away. A red sports car takes his place. A man steps out, dressed in a red shirt, black slacks and a gold necklace. The morning sun glints across the necklace like an artifact from King Tut's tomb. A second red car parks next to the first. A young woman emerges. She is wearing colors too. They fade from sight, preferring to do their business out of camera range. Across the pond, I set up near in a row of tall pines to capture a flock of Great White Egrets. The Egrets urgently feed their young, in tune with mothers in homes across the street, preparing breakfast in anticipation of the school bus. There is a flurry of great white wings landing and taking off. Young are feed or wait in strained anticipation, amid an almost comic sword fight of feeding beaks. As the sun rises, there are no homes, no morning traffic, no homeless, no drug dealers or couriers . . . only trees aglow with morning sun and great white angel wings.