What are you listening for, who
already know everything I have
to say? You are nothing but
a tourist of the night.
What appears empty to you
is in fact a fully inhabited tenement.
Your inscrutable fruit is far
more pungent than you can know,
who do not risk becoming
someone else’s morsel.
Who cooks for you?
*
Response to last night’s post. (In bird guides, the barred owl’s call is usually described as sounding like “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?”)
I like this, especially lines 5 and 6. “Tenement” really works, I think.
Thanks, Peter. I was proud of myself for thinking of that word.
What a great poem from the owl’s wide-eyed perspective, Dave. I am not going to ask what scent keeps us (mostly safe) from predators, but I’m guessing it’s not berries.
There were barred owls in the huge cottonwood trees near our Mississippi cabin when I was a kid. No owl ever descended to a level where we could see it, but the call was unmistakable. In fact, my father amused us by imitating the owl, trying for a return call. It is eerie how much the owl sounds to me like a human imitating an owl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fppKGJD3Y6c
Wow, that’s a terrific video! Thanks for the link. Barred owls are so cool. And you’re right, they do sound like people imitating owls. Hmm…
That’s great. It’s a very haunting interpretation of the call, isn’t it? ‘Who cooks for you?’, it’s already a sad feeling…