We're mostly couples of that age when people start to wonder what they've missed, and set out to find it evenings at Adult School. Our teacher's slim, blonde, single, fine at snatching birdsong from air. Amazing, really, not to mention younger, and I notice how men gaze at her, intense as Sharp-shinned hawks, and consider their life lists. What's the harm? My husband and I met so many birds ago, when he came fresh from the Southern California orchard bearing the exotic names of cherries (Bings, Vans, Jubilees, Lamberts, Tartarians, Black Republicans), his childhood of droughts and floods rich in one way: His father paid him to shoot those birds that ate the crop. In their taxonomy, the avian kingdom divided neatly into damned Cherry Eaters and birds allowed to live. A Cherry Eater chirped, and he ran to the orchard. He plugged thousands at a nickel apiece, bounty hunter, .22 slung where now he hefts a spotting scope and aims at nothing more than magnification. No wonder he impresses her, birding by ear, until that day when he admits his crimes. She begins to list some species, faltering when she reaches her favorite — Not Western Tanagers? He nods, my George Washington who couldn't tell a lie. My Audubon who slaughtered anything it took to paint a more perfect feather. Audubon could be forgiven because of the beauty he made visible, the way I see beauty in my husband's need to tell a sometimes awkward truth. Our teacher, though, responds with silence, and her eyes dart to her feet, as if someone's dropped a sack of a tiny corpses.
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Readers’ Comments
- On "Horse Cemetery": I enjoyed your poem very much. Thanks for sharing it. – Patrick Caruana
May 25 - On "Luffing": Finding that perfect balance in life so your sails don't flap so hard you are accused of 'careless luffing' would be grand but don't think... – Jacqueline Casey
May 24 - On "Kritios Boy": A beautifully written essay that resonates with some of my own experience with a lost love. thank you. – Susan Charney
May 21 - On "The Last Sister": Thank you for taking the time to read poetry and to write this lovely note! – Tracy DeBrincat
May 21 - On "Matt Burke": Your creations are wonderful, Matt! As an artist myself, I have always been attracted to wood because of its magnificent definition in the natural state.... – Gippy Henry
May 21 - On "The Past Life Hypnotist Predicts The Future": In my humble opinion, this is a wonderful piece of work. Although fiction it's about a subject that many question in this time period. More... – Gippy Henry
May 21 - On "The Last Sister": Love your poetry! So much sensory details, metaphors taking the past toward the future is exhilarating. The constant reference to not living in the past... – Gippy Henry
May 21 - On "The Other Chair": This is a wonderful essay. I applaud the way you worked yourself as a prior patient into the field. Studied psychology and the brain at... – Gippy Henry
May 21
- On "Horse Cemetery": I enjoyed your poem very much. Thanks for sharing it. – Patrick Caruana
4 Comments
This poem dances well between the themes of missed opportunity and death. It intigued me like an aviary set up within a mortuary might. Susan’s ‘Birdsong by Ear’ verses scintillate.
That last line and image is wonderful, as is the entire poem. I like its rhythm, partly gliding, partly flitting.
Excellent piece. I loved the tension, and the rhythm.
As well as the juxtaposition of the ages, both the husband and the teacher, and the husband and the younger self.
Nicely done!
Awesome, lovely poem! I definitely want to read more work by Susan Cohen!