And one more sonnet, and then a woodpecker
poem, and then we go home.
[LAUGHTER]
"Mistakes."
Can a heart equal the mistakes it makes?
We hung the cage outside, seated the rail
so the vines filled with finches and our parakeet would not
be lonely, then we got busy, failed
to hear the thicket quiet.
Next my husband screaming, snake, love.
Snake!
An enormous king snake suffocated the birds
and curled in the cage.
Take it away, we told the Humane Society.
But it's a good snake.
We couldn't bear it.
Take it away.
And they did.
And the next morning, asleep on the empty porch
railing, his mate.