Cardinals

A bird feeder hangs off my deck now. Now I have a new responsibility. The birds have found the feeder and will have an expectation. If I deny them in winter, one or more may not find enough food under the snow, in the cold.

I've been watching them arrive, swoping in and taking off, taking turns. Then one late afternoon, the cardinals arrived.

I had received a poem (not directly - strange how at times a message arrives via a messenger and not directly). All the elements seem to come together in a cosmic sense - although if one is going to hang a bird feeder and one also gets a poem about birds, the reach is not so far.

Cardinals by John L. Stanizzi

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.

Beautiful sentiment. Cardinals mating for life. But most cardinal life expectancy is only a year, so one turn through the four season - one walk in the spring rain, one moment of daffodils, one hot summer at the beach, one rush of fall crisp air and brilliant leaves, one first winter snowfall and snuggling by the crackling fire, and then spring again and with the crocuses - new love.

But the poem is not merely about whether or not cardinals may mate for life; it is about the sharing of the moment. The sharing of the seeds between the birds and the desire to share the sharing with one who would understand - that it matters. The other element that strikes me is the repetition, "over and over."