July | 2026 | ashyvicar

Hiding in plain sight
in a field.
Just glimpsed out of the eye corner –
when walking along the Derwent
looking for dippers

Straining, striving, stretching
every optical sinew –
even through binoculars
they remained stubbornly still
concealing their wings.

Going against the grain
of a short-term world
tempted by short-term fixes
we waited it out
true believers in the virtue of patience.

Then – the opening of a wing
an outstretched span
revealed russet red,
majestic in a sunshine spring
the angels of Blanchland

Unfurled they took to the sky.
Better than any seraph
these red kites with no strings,
masters of wind
riders of the thermals.

Once poisoned
shot on sight
driven to extinction –
now heralds of a new hope;
the angels of Blanchland

ashyvicar