The Sandpiper

 

"Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather
 into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them.
Are you not worth much more than they?"
(Matthew 6:26)

Young Sandpiper at the Beach

Painting by Laure Bury/ Image courtesy/Artmajeur

Across the lonely beach we flit,

One little sandpiper and I,

And fast I gathered, bit by bit,

The scattered driftwood, bleached and dry.

The wild waves reach their hands for it,

The wild wind raves, the tide runs high,

And up and down the beach we flit,

One little sandpiper and I.

Above our heads the sullen clouds

Scud, black and swift, across the sky;

Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds

Stand out the white lighthouses high.

Almost as far as eye can reach

I see the close-reefed vessels fly,

As fast we flit across the beach,

One little sandpiper and I.

I watch him as he skims along,

Uttering his sweet and mournful cry;

He starts not at my fitful song,

Nor flash of fluttering drapery.

He has no thought of any wrong,

He scans me with a fearless eye;

Stanch friends we are, well-tried and strong,

The little sandpiper and I.

Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night,

When the loosed storm breaks furiously?

My driftwood fire will burn so bright!

To what warm shelter canst thou fly?

I do not fear for thee, though wroth,

The tempest rushes through the sky;

For are we not God's children both,

Thou, little sandpiper, and I?

"The Sandpiper"
Celia Thaxter
(1835-1894)
American writer and poetess

A Sandpiper is known as a "Wader" as they are commonly
found wading along shorelines and in the mud of marshes
and wet meadows foraging for food.  These birds are
related to the Snipe and the Curlew, and different
species of them can be found across the United States.