Birdwatching

For Paula and Phil

Linda Sue Park

Either end or start of daylight is best,
but you have come to prefer the mornings,
their promise clean and quieter.  You find
patches of field, stands of wood
unmarked on the maps of others
so you’re all alone in your matched gum-boots
and twin necklaces of black binoculars.

Wing-bars, neck-rings, hue and plume
unseen at first, you’ve learned instead
the different grays between swoop and dip;
chirp and trill; flap and flutter—new life
for old words.  The pride in being the first
to point is linked to the pleasure of sharing,
for both of you know the secret power
of naming things in a whisper,
as if no one had ever said them before:

Say “wren.”
Say “linnet.”
Say “tawny owl.”

Linda Sue Park