Birds Who Mate for Life
Dec 17 2010


Birds who mate for life,
who return
to the same tract of trackless forest
same tree, same branch,
in another spring
a thousand miles after,
still sing
to each other.

His song of seduction
is not intended
for the young receptive hens.
But instead, to cement their attachment.
Just as they mud the nest,
having survived
to mate again.

Like an elderly couple
married forever,
who squabble and peck
ruffle their feathers
then quickly forget.
Who complete each other’s sentences,
are snugly content
in silence, together.

The trouble is
they have studied the DNA,
and birds who mate for life
apparently stray.
Frequently.

I see the elderly couple
on the park bench,
tossing stale bread
to a scuffle of gulls.
I wonder if one, or both, ever cheated,
if they’ll take the secret
to the grave.
Or did the guilty party confide,
and still, the marriage survives?

And does he sing to her
at night?
Or doing the dishes
his turn to dry?
An old song
off key,
with words he’s not quite sure of.

And, deaf in one ear
she joins in the chorus,
with a clear pure voice.


I've been listening to "Between the Covers", on CBC radio. This is a podcast, where they present audio versions of contemporary books. The latest is Elizabeth Haye's "Late Nights on Air", which won the Giller Prize a few years ago, and which I'm quite enjoying. Anyway, there was a single simple sentence I heard on one instalment, and it stuck in my head. It seemed a good first line for a poem So I wrote it down on my usual blank white sheet, and let my mind wander. This is how it turned out.

A nice combination, I think, of the cynical and sweet; the romantic, and the ornithological!