Perfection.
There it lay weightless and waiting until a breeze
lifted it\'s gossamer frame
and silently floated its presence away.
That marvel of strong fragility which tho\' covered
with patches of under-down
was intelligently patterned for rigidity.
Feather-perfection can when attached raise aloft
any hollow bird-bones, taking
to hovering heights outstretched wings.
Feather-borne fliers skim the sky, drift on thermals,
quiver in ether,
stay afloat, dive when keened by fiercest of winds,
feel warm throughout
chilly nights and successfully brood nestfuls of kith
and kin by fluffing up heat or cool.
Fine tufted smoothness surrounding dense matter
gives thistledown buoyance
and hooked strength to feather-mass schooled in
usefully dressing dove or predator.
Praise for the sight of discriminate beauty within
such flimsy wonders as this.