Dancing with the cranes

Exciting, jumping, bowing, stretching
In jerky sequence, exaltation, exhilaration
Wild in a wet meadow, mutual rejoicing
Reflecting a sense of limited aggression.

Engendering hope for a free and open future, 
With their elegant posturing and dramatic leaps
Enthusiastic and sometime even immature
High into the air with outstretched wings.

Coordinating bows, leaps and short flight
Liking to dance in pairs for a courtship ritual.
Turning their head and balancing the weight
Being paired for life, never trying to be perpetual

Bowing and bobbing, jumping for joy and fidelity
Throw their trumpet, grass, stone and feather
Performing ballet leaps with a graceful fragility
Better yet, they dance when they need to be together

Red-crowned, they certainly dance in the snow
Sometimes crying, crops need to be sown in June
Being in competence with light, their features glow
Soaring into the clouds as if chasing the moon.

Called simple 'the bird of happiness' in Japan
Or 'patriarch of the feathered tribe' in China, 
A symbol of wisdom, painted always with the sun
A symbol of Vietnamese, beautiful images on the retina

Sandhill crane, always the great spirit of the wild
Bowing head, flapping wings in an exquisite dance, 
Leaping upward, touching the ground like a child
Tossing wisp of grass, twigs into the air by chance

Imitating the crane dancers, seemingly being humane
At the ancient Chinese funerals and Okinawan festival.
In Japanese myths the soul takes the form of the crane
In India mythology, they stand for malice and betrayal.