Boutheina Boughnim writes

Flamingo

Soaked in red wine,

The immaculate white plumage

Turned into scarlet sanguine,

With a pink, wild décolletage

Rounding off the long, cuddling neck...

Flame-coloured: such is your name,

Flamingo, wading flares strew on water

Glide by like flags brandished

By lost lovers, about to drown─

Tarnished by their blood:

Thick red diluted into pink or

Rotting orange instead...

 

-- Diana Fava