Jane Hirshfield, “The Woodpecker Keeps Returning” …

 

Jane Hirshfield (A link to an audio recording.)

 

“The Woodpecker Keeps Returning”

 
 
The woodpecker keeps returning
to drill the house wall.
Put a pie plate over one place, he chooses another.

There is nothing good to eat there:
he has found in the house
a resonant billboard to post his intentions,
his voluble strength as provider.

But where is the female he drums for? Where?

I ask this, who am myself the ruined siding,
the handsome red-capped bird, the missing mate.
 
 
 
~
 
 
 

~ by samofthetenthousandthings on May 28, 2014.