Cardinals

What a wonderful poem I heard on Garrison Keillors, A Writer's Almanac. I'm not sure I could get all the line breaks corrected but I've given up trying to edit on Blogger.

Cardinals
by John L. Stanizzi (taken from the Writer's Almanac)



I had seen them in the tree,


and heard they mate for life,


so I hung a bird feeder and waited.


By the third day,


sparrows and purple finches


hovered and jockeyed


like a swarm of bees


fighting over one flower.


So I hung another feeder,


but the squabbling continued


and the seed spilled


like a shower


of tiny meteors


onto the ground


where starlings


had congregated,


and blue jays,


annoyed at the world,


disrupted everyone


except the mourning doves,


who ambled around


like plump old women


poking for the firmest head of lettuce.


Then early one evening


they came,


the only ones—she stood


on the periphery


of the small galaxy of seed;


he hopped among the nuggets, calmly chose


one seed at a time, carried it to her,


placed it in her beak;


she, head tilted, accepted it.Then they fluffed,


hopped together,


did it all over again.


And filled with love,


I phoned to tell you,


over and over,


about each time


he celebrated


being there, all alone,


with her.