Cast bronze eagle frozen in time
ever on guard. Watching. Waiting.

Wondering where and when
mental wings will lift its caged spirit
above oyster beds, sand bars, seaweed…
soar upon lofty thoughts in flight
liberated from its rigid base, climbing
& establishing cerebral mobility,
unfettered by Arachne’s children
dropping from a fixed feather crown

binding the bird’s earthbound effigy
in silky shackles, spinning complex webs.

Frame, radius, & auxiliary threads join,
form elegant nets, quiver in the breeze

collect opaque dew drops that gather
like pearl garlands strung on filament
as magical as stars glistening against
a field of tarnish copper, splendor
unnoticed by the transcendental
eagle lost in deep meditation exposes
itself to wind currents, defies magnetic fields,
ignores bolts that anchor movement

its mind ballooning like gliding spiderlings.
Stoic. Resolute. Evolving. Eminently free.