Allegiances: The Sandhill Cranes

Without regard for our fellow cranes, we will land on you.

The waters fill with us, the sandbars

with our wings, beaks, legs,

a whole world,

not to mention the sky

filled with the great sound, all saying,

I pledge my heart, my allegiance

to the united cranes of the continent

under one sky

indivisible

in one water

and to the republic of crane,

for which we stand,

one nation for which we come,

under cloud, under sky,

even the once ragged and poor,

for which we rise up

with the power and glory

of our union with all the majestic others.