Special Feature: "Bats" by the Editor

Bats

Steven Wittenberg Gordon, MD

As dusk was approaching,

I joined the other airmen

for a tour of the Island of Weh. 

We drove up a mountain

through a forest of coconuts

to a pinnacle overlooking

the Indian Ocean. 

The view was breathtaking. 

On the way down,

I witnessed the Island’s

gigantic black bats

mobilize for their evening hunt

and thought how my son

would have loved to see that.

Editor's Note:  "Bats" is part of my unpublished collection "A Wave of Poetry" inspired by my adventures as a USAF flight surgeon in support of the relief effort in the aftermath of the terrible tsunami that struck Indonesia and Thailand a the end of 2004.  This poem captures a moment of awesome beauty, power, and loneliness in the midst of the disaster.