Chuck-will’s-widow

Incessant bird of the swamp –
Mottled brown with buff throat:
The color of your endless pleas.
Reddish-brown flight lined with black:
Nocturnal kite against the moon,
Tethered to the reeds.
Capped with brown and white:
Jester of the nightjars—
Playing the willful fool
Who stirs the stagnant pool –
And so we notice:
Every society has its mosquitoes
As well as the one who devours them.