WILD HARVEST
Icelanders know where sea birds live
In crevice and cranny, on crag and cliff.
Icelanders know how to climb
And where to look and at what time.
The locals have learned just how to take
Their eggs from murres and kittiwakes:
Not too many and just when
So every hen will lay again.
Stormy petrels and razorbills,
Fulmars, gannets and wagtails:
In markets you will see them all
Colored, speckled, large and small.
They cannot get enough of puffins
Yet puffin populations boom
And eider ducks produce big eggs
As well as marketable down.
Sheerwaters and guillemots,
Only the ravens are their foes.
Icelanders know what they’re worth:
Icelanders are for the birds.
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