Today's poem is a story from my childhood, and it's followed by a must-see video of the Blue-footed Booby's courting dance.
Blue-footed Booby
I must have been ten or eleven
when, looking at a bird picture,
I announced to my family
that this was a
Blue-footed Booby.
My parents laughed,
assuming, I’m sure,
that I had made up the name.
Clearly,
the bird was
blue-footed;
any booby could see that.
Baby blue feet
gleamed in the sun,
standing out against
the gray rocks.
But a booby?
Really?
Well, yes,
according to
National Geographic,
probably where
I first encountered this bird.
The name comes from bobo,
stupid in Spanish.
The story
became an instant part
of family lore.
I, no booby,
knew a Blue-footed Booby
when I saw one.
(I wasn’t quite as proud of that fact
as a Blue-footed Booby
is of its
glorious
cerulean
feet.)
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Sources: Silversea, National Geographic
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