The American Eagle
The American eagle, called bald ‘cos of its pure white head,
Is named Haliaeetus leucocephalus, from the Greek;
Hali means "sea", aietos means “eagle", leuco "white",
And cephalos simply means the “head" with the streak.
The bald eagle lives near the sea, a river or any such reservoir,
Any water based freeway as it devours fish, salmon and carp;
It rests in large, mature stands of conifer trees,
To feed its young whatever it hunts and occasionally sees.
America is a nation of the head, and not a land the heart,
With an independence declaration of a human kind,
Which points to god only when the universal is pertinent,
That unifies by raising strength and concern of mind.
What’s most apparent to me from its wording,
Is that it seeks to mechanise the human good,
What’s moral, right, true and honest,
Such that the outcast can produce and be understood.
The pure, white head of the American bald eagle,
Seems to connotate this loud, bold and clear,
And its dark brown body seems to speak,
For all Americans who aspire from something mere.
The size of their nests can be twenty metres wide,
And this can represent the typical American home,
Which to me, a Scots girl aware of semi-detached abodes,
Are like football pitches where you can jump and roam.
The bald eagle was becoming extinct,
From the 1960s right up until the late 90s,
And as this bird is now proliferous and thriving,
It reminds us that the American Dream is all-including.
It was the symbol of the Great Seal in 1782,
And J F Kennedy referred to its appropriation,
As it symbolised the strength and freedom, forged and died for,
Of the mighty, magnificent independent American nation.
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